UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Dr.   ERNEST   C.   MOORE 


THE   ORGANIZATION  AND  ADMINIS- 
TRATION  OF  A  STATE'S  INSTITU- 
TIONS OF  HIGHER  EDUCATION 


BY 


ARTHUR   LEFEVRE 

SOMETIME  SECRETARY  FOR  RESEARCH 


OF 


ORGANIZATION  FOR  THE 

ENLARGEMENT  BY  THE  STATE  OF  TEXAS  OF  ITS 
INSTITUTIONS  OF  HIGHER  EDUCATION 


AUSTIN,  TEXAS 

VONiBoECKMANN-JONES  Co.,    PRINTERS 
1914 


3024    6 


THE  ORGANIZATION  AND  ADMINIS- 
TRATION OF  A  STATE'S  INSTITU- 
TIONS OF  HIGHER  EDUCATION 


BY 


ARTHUR   LEFEVRE 

SOMETIME  SECRETARY  FOR  RESEARC 


OF 


ORGANIZATION  FOR  THE 

ENLARGEMENT  BY  THE  STATE  OF  TEXAS  OF  ITS 
INSTITUTIONS  OF  HIGHER  EDUCATION 


AUSTIN,  TEXAS 

VON  BOECKMANN-JONES  Co.,    PRINTERS 
1914 


All  bulletins  published  by  the  Organization  for  the 
Enlargement  by  the  State  of  Texas  of  its  Institutions 
of  Higher  Education  are  intended  to  stimulate  critical 
thought.  In  order  that  correct  conclusions  may  be 
reached  the  Board  of  Control  would  welcome  care- 
fully considered  communications  discussing  the  prob- 
lems treated  in  such  publications,  or  any  other  ques- 
tions concerning  the  State's  work  of  education. 


Copyright  1914  by  Arthur  Lefevre 


Education 
Library 

L6 


L 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 

X5 

FEATURES  OF  ORGANIZATION  FOR  WHICH  THE  STATE 
LEGISLATURE  is  RESPONSIBLE 

(With  Special  Reference  to  the  State  of  Texas) 

^  I.     Prerequisite  Conceptions 1 

^3            II.     Diverse  Institutions.     Two  Remedies  for  the  Evils  of 
Rivalry  Under  Precarious  Support — The  Question  of 
0&  "Duplication"  5 

CO 

III.     Inexpediency  of  a  Central  Board  of  Control. 

Historical    Summary — The   Standard    System — The 
_,  Only  Needed  Adjustment  of  the  Texas  System 11 

IV.  State  Normal  Schools. 

Correlation  with  Colleges — Schools  for  Defectives ...     24 

V.  Voluntary  Co-operation. 

Timely  Suggestions:  The  Necessary  Tax;  Appor- 
tionment of  the  Proposed  Tax ;  Co-operation  by  Fed- 
eral Government;  with  Colleges;  with  Theological 
Seminaries;  by  Individual  Citizens 33 

PART  II 
INTERNAL  ORGANIZATION  AND  ADMINISTRATION 

I.     Preliminary. 

&  Internal  Effects  of  Precarious  Support — A  Needed 

Service — Method  of  Presentation 70 

e? 

II.     The  Governing  Board. 

Reasons  for  the  Essential  Features  of  the  American 
System — Proper  Nature  of  the  Board's  Control — Re- 
lation to  the  President — Two  Theories  of  University 
Management — The  Two  Essential  Responsibilities — 
The  Status  of  the  Faculty — Faculty  Participation  in 
University  Government — The  Cornell  Plan — Prac- 
ticable Solutions — The  Final  Responsibility 85 


242090 


IV  CONTENTS 

III.    Business  Management. 

Bookkeeping — The  Budget — Business  Manager — 
Grounds  and  Buildings — Financial  Beports  and 
Audits  —  Mistaken  Analogies  —  Suggestions — Eegis- 
trar's  Office — Advertising 138 

IV.     The  Executive  Officer. 

Full  Conception  of  the  Presidential  Office — Essential 
Functions — The  Problem  of  Elimination — The  Atti- 
tude of  Colleagueship  with  Faculty — Secondary  Ad- 
ministrators    196 

V.     The  Faculty. 

The  Deanship — Faculty  Secretaries — Libraries  and 
Museums  —  Department  Organization  —  Eank-Ten- 
ure-Salaries — Recruiting  a  Faculty — Freedom  of 
Teaching— Ideals 234 

VI.     Administration  of  the  Curriculum. 

Existing  College  Curricula — The  Elective  System- 
Mistaken  Devices — Credit  for  Quality — Grading — 
Admission  Eequirements — Proper  Eelation  of  the 
American  University  to  the  American  High  School. 
Note  on  Elementary  Schools.  Note  on  Industrial 
Training 312 

VII.     Student  Life  and  Work. 

Undergraduates — Graduate  Division — Extension  Di- 
vision— Athletics — Dormitories  and  Fraternities — 
Student  Self-Government — The  Honor  System — 'Co- 
Education — Concluding  Eemarks 407 

APPENDIX — Note  on  the  subject  of  Part  1 515 

INDEX  ,  .   517 


THE    ORGANIZATION    AND    ADMINISTRATION    OF   A 
STATE'S  INSTITUTIONS  OF  HIGHER  EDUCATION 


PART  I 

FEATURES  OF  ORGANIZATION  FOR  WHICH  THE  STATE 
LEGISLATURE  IS  RESPONSIBLE 

WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  THE  STATE  OF  TEXAS 

I.  PREREQUISITE  CONCEPTIONS 

It  is  needful,  to-day  in  America,  to  pause  at  the  outset  of 
any  serious  discussion  either  of  organization  or  administration,  by 
a  man  who  does  not  share  the  prevalent  notion  that  organization 
and  administration  mean  the  same  thing,  to  explain  the  very  ideas 
to  be  invoked  by  the  words.  It  is  the  confusion  of  those  ideas, 
and  not  "education"  that  is  really  "the  great  American  super- 
stition." The  misconception  is  manifested  in  almost  every  social 
or  political  movement.  The  desire  to  "do  things"  is  seldom  di- 
rected by  knowledge  of  the  importance  of  accomplishing  them 
through  proper  agencies.  Or,  only  some  nearest  relation  or  par- 
ticular consequence  of  a  measure  is  regarded,  and  its  distant  con- 
nections or  permanent  tendencies  are  ignored.  Associated  with 
the  main  misconception,  in  educational  affairs,  has  been  the  notion 
that  "executive  ability"  is  a  thing  apart  from  and  independent 
of  masterful  knowledge  of  the  business  in.  hand.  Also,  because 
financiering  combinations  have  been  successfully  administered 
without  being  truly  organized,  it  has  been  supposed  that  univer- 
sities (and  school  systems)  could  be  prospered  in  like  manner. 
In  this  error  it  has  been  forgotten  that  a  dividend  was  the  simple 
object  and  criterion  of  success  in  the  financiering  combination; 
whereas  a  university  should  be  a  true  organism,  not  a  mere  combi- 
nation, and  its  parts  can  healthfully  subsist  only  in  an  atmosphere 
of  confidence  and  fellowship  and  through  spontaneous  mutual 
service. 


2  PREREQUISITE    CONCEPTIONS 

In  an  organism  it  is  not  sufficient  that  there  should  be  a  sepa- 
rate agency  for  discharging  every  essential  function,  nor  is  the 
right  idea  completed  by  adding  the  conception  of  the  proper 
autonomy  of  each  organ.  Genuine  organization  requires,  besides 
both  of  those  characteristics,  that  every  organ  should  sympathize 
and  co-operate  with  every  other  organ.  The  administrative  organ 
of  the  entire  organism  can  not  fully  or  rightly  discharge  its  func- 
tion unless  that  condition  exists. 

If  disorganization  has  occurred  at  any  other  point,  the  admin- 
istrative function  strives  to  restore  the  local  responsibility  and  the 
general  harmony;  and  in  the  wise  order  of  nature  administration 
is  not  conceived  as  established  for  the  deranged  part  until  both  its 
local  responsibility  and  the  general  harmony  have  been  restored — 
that  is  to  say,  until  it  has  been  organized  again.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  a  university  or  college  president  acts  as  an  autocrat 
usurping  or  inhibiting  functions  not  his  own,  or  if  all  within  the 
sphere  of  his  administration  can  not  depend  upon  his  competency 
and  courage  and  on  his  absolute  fidelity  in  transmitting  the  com- 
munications from  part  to  part  made  through  him  and  on  the  com- 
plete truthfulness  of  his  statements  to  any  part  concerning  an- 
other part, — then  such  a  university,  however  busily  administered, 
is  disorganized  at  its  most  vital  point;  and  its  condition  is,  in  the 
strict  sense  of  the  word,  insane,  and  comparable  to  the  condition 
of  a  body  administered  by  a  brain  whose  reports,  messages,  and 
commands  are  faithless,  conflicting,  founded  in  vain  conceits. 

Disorganization  of  a  different  sort,  but  equally  injurious,  ensues, 
if  a  governing  board  transgresses  its  proper  legislative  function. 
Supreme  power  of  every  kind,  subject  only  to  the  law  of  the  land, 
is  vested  in  the  governing  board ;  but  nothing  short  of  an  incurable 
state  of  insurrection  could  justify  the  assumption  of  administrative 
functions  normally  committed  to  the  executive  officer  of  the  board 
or  belonging  to  the  faculty.  The  condition  is  comparable  to  the 
suspension  of  a  country's  regular  laws  and  the  proclamation  of 


PREREQUISITE    CONCEPTIONS  3 

martial  law.  Any  overstepping  of  the  bounds  of  its  proper  func- 
tion should  be  recognized  as  a  last  recourse  by  the  governing  board 
of  an  educational  institution.  Such  a  remedy  is  applicable  only 
to  a  desperate  disorder,  because  the  remedy  would  be  worse  than 
the  disease  in  any  case  less  than  desperate. 

Worst  of  all  may  be  the  disorganization  superinduced  by  im- 
proper exercise  of  power  by  a  state  legislature.  Such  disorganiza- 
tion is  absolute  and  permanent,  and  without  remedy  until  the 
institution  involved  is,  as  it  were,  refounded  by  another  legisla- 
ture. There  is,  indeed,  truth  in  the  Greek  maxim,  "No  law  is  a 
good  law  unless  it  is  has  good  executors";  but  Commissioner 
Draper,  of  the  State  of  ISTew  York,  speaks  out  of  an  abundance  of 
experience  and  observation  when  he  says:  "Troubles  in  adminis- 
tration [of  educational  institutions]  seldom  come  from  the  pres- 
ence of  vicious  characters;  they  arise  from  a  confusion  of  powers 
and  prerogatives,  and  from  a  disposition  which  men  seem  to  have 
to  direct  matters  the  most  about  which  they  know  the  least.  When 
powers  are  based  upon  principles  the  troubles  will  largely  disap- 
pear." The  fundamental  principle  for  the  case  in  question,  is  that 
the  legislature  ought  never  to  infringe  upon  the  sphere  of  admin- 
istration. It  is  the  part  of  the  legislature  to  create  a  governing 
bodv  for  the  institution,  in  the  way  that  is  shown  to  be  best  calcu- 
lated to  secure  the  most  competent  and  faithful  executors  of  the 
State's  general  purpose.  Such  an  organ  having  been  created,  to 
it  should  be  committed  the  government  and  control  of  the  insti- 
tution. It  is  the  function  of  the  board  of  regents  to  govern  the 
institution,  and  to  supervise  the  administraion  of  all  its  enter- 
prises in  accordance  with  a  soundly  organized  procedure.  The 
legislature,  of  course,  retains  a  regulative  power  which,  normally, 
ought  to  be  exercised  only  in  its  decisions  concerning  appropria- 
tions of  money  in  addition  to  the  proceeds  of  an  established  tax, 
for  new  developments  recommended  by  the  governing  board. 


PREREQUISITE    CONCEPTIONS 

In  a  previous  study,  published  March  28,  1912,  the  present 
writer  offered  the  first  results  of  his  endeavors  to  fulfill  the  duties 
and  opportunities  of  "Secretary  for  Research"  for  the  Organiza- 
tion he  had  the  honor  of  serving.  That  investigation,  entitled  "A 
Study  of  the  Financial  Basis  of  the  State  Universities  and  Agri- 
cultural Colleges  in  Fourteen  States,"  contributed,  as  its  main 
object,  a  reliable  practical  calculation  of  the  amount  of  money 
that  must  be  supplied  annually  by  the  State  of  Texas  for  the  sup- 
port of  its  three  institutions  of  higher  education,  if  the  people  of 
this  State  desire  to  secure  for  themselves  the  average  serviceable- 
ness  of  the  corresponding  institutions  "in  all  the  States  that  have 
seriously  undertaken  to  secure  efficient  services  from  such  institu- 
tions." 

Of  course,  efficiency  depends  more  upon  the  wisdom  of  persons 
than  upon  the  financial  basis,  but  it  was  not  possible  in  a  statis- 
tical discussion  to  take  the  wisdom  factor  into  account.  The 
present  study  enters  the  domain  of  judgments  based  upon  prin- 
ciples and  practical  experience,  as  distinguished  from  calculations 
based  upon  statistics,  yet  even  here  it  is  possible  only  to  consider 
arrangements  conducive  to  good  results.  In  the  ultimate  execu- 
tion of  any  design  it  is  the  individual  that  counts.  We  are  prone 
to  put  too  much  faith  in  systems,  and  look  too  little  to  men. 
Still,  a  bad  system  of  organization  demoralizes  the  co-operative 
spirit  of  the  group  and  leads  to  the  selection  of  weak  or  bad  in- 
dividuals. 


II.     BIVEKSE  INSTITUTIONS 

The  scope  of  the  study  presented  in  Part  I  of  this  book  must  be 
limited  by  an  immediate  reference  to  the  existing  state  institutions 
of  higher  education  in  the  State  of  Texas.  It  would  go  beyond  its 
subject  to  include  modifications  of  organization  applicable  only  to 
the  private  corporations  of  endowed  or  denominational  institu- 
tions. 

The  individual  permanence  and  autonomy  of  the  three  institu- 
tions already  established  by  the  State  of  Texas — University  of 
Texas,  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of  Texas,  State  College 
for  Women — might,  without  rashness,  be  assumed;  but  it  will  be 
advantageous  to  consider  the  question  thoroughly. 

Two  Remedies  for  Evils  of  Rivalry  Under  Precarious  Support 

All  the  arguments  advanced  in  favor  of  combining  two  or  more 
state  institutions  of  higher  education  in  one  university,  or  in 
favor  of  one  central  board  of  control  for  separate  institutions, 
reduce  to  two:  (1)  duplication  of  work,  and  (2)  injurious  rivalry 
before  legislatures  in  ever-recurring  scrambles  for  appropriations. 

The  second  argument  refers  to  a  serious  evil  in  many  States; 
and,  if  there  were  no  remedy  but  consolidation,  decisive  weight 
would  attach  to  this  argument  in  spite  of  valid  objections  to  re- 
stricting all  educational  work  beyond  secondary  schools  to  one 
institution.  But  there  is  another  remedy  for  the  evil.  A  state 
tax  for  the  institutions  of  higher  education  adequate  to  their 
regular  support  and  definitely  apportioned  between  them  by  the 
law  levying  the  tax,  would  remove  the  ground  of  injurious  rivalry. 
It  is  remarkable  that  this  effective  remedy  for  the  evils  of  rivalry 
under  precarious  support  seems  not  to  suggest  itself  to  advocates 
of  concentration  or  of  central  boards.  This  subject  is  developed  in 
Chapter  V,  treating  of  voluntary  co-operation,  where  the  tax 


6  THE    QUESTION   OF   DUPLICATION 

necessary   for  the  maintenance  and   improvement  of  the   Texas 
institutions  and  the  proper  method  of  apportioning  it  are  discussed. 

The  Question  of  "Duplication" 

There  remains  the  argument  founded  on  duplication  of  work. 
Perusal  of  many  published  discussions  of  the  question  has  not  dis- 
covered a  single  attempt  to  estimate  the  extra  cost*  of  duplica- 
tion. Even  as  strong  a  man  as  President  Van  Hise  contents 
himself  with  assuming  that  duplication  causes  such  waste  that 
separate  institutions  must  be  consolidated,  or  that  the  objectionable 
central  boards  "are  inevitable."  In  my  judgment  the  case  is  by 
no  means  so  bad  or  so  hopeless.  Speaking  of  a  separate  univer- 
sity and  agricultural  college,,  it  is  exclaimed,  "Each  of  these  in- 
stitutions must  have  a  department  of  physics  and  a  department  of 
chemistry/"  also  that  there  must  be  "in  each  studies  in  English 
and  economics,  French  and  German."  Such  exclamations  are  not 
arguments.  In  cases  where  each  institution  has  overcrowded  labor- 
atories and  insufficient  teaching  force,  how  would  the  cost  be  mate- 
rially reduced  by  removing  to  one  of  them  the  students  at  the 


*The  report  of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1912,  issued  six 
months  after  the  publication  of  Part  I  of  this  study  (here  reprinted 
together  with  Part  II),  includes  a  report  on  this  question  by  Dr.  K.  C.- 
Babcock,  Chief  of  the  Division  of  Higher  Education.  Xo  estimate  of  the 
cost  of  duplication  is  made,  but  he  states :  "The  waste  due  to  duplication 
of  faculty,  equipment,  and  buildings  is  frequently  overestimated.  While 
it  may  be  temporarily  noticeable  in  weak,  new  commonwealths,  which  have 
distributed  their  institutions,  the  permanence  of  this  defect  in  a  given 
State  system  will  depend  largely  upon  the  rapidity  of  the  growth  of  popu- 
lation and  the  upward  reach  of  the  work  undertaken.  The  work  done  at 
the  present  time  by  the  three  higher  institutions  supported  by  the  State 
of  Michigan,  and  the  two  supported  by  the  State  of  Indiana,  would  not 
greatly  gain  in  efficiency  if  it  were  all  combined  in  each  State  in  one  place 
and  under  one  management,  while  the  economies  would  be  confined  to  a 
few  administrative  salaries  saved  in  the  process  of  centralization."  Never- 
theless, Dr.  Babcock  refers  with  apparent  approval  to  an  opinion  favoring 
"combining  in  one  institution  the  colleges  of  liberal  arts  and  sciences  and 
all  the  professional  schools,  including  colleges  of  engineering  and  agricul- 
ture, for  a  given  State."  A  list  is  given  of  institutions  that  have  been 


THE    QUESTION   OF    DUPLICATION  7 

other?  Certain  administrative  and  overhead  expenses  are  indeed 
duplicated;  but  they  are  not  sufficient  in  amount  to  compel  a  reck- 
less ignoring  of  strong  affirmative  reasons,  where  such  exist,  for 
the  continuance  of  deeply-rooted  historical  developments.  Enor- 
mous size  does  not  make  an  institution  great,  neither  does  it  insure 
economy,  or  efficiency,  or  desirable  progress. 

President  Van  Hise  opened  his  address  to  the  National  Associa- 
tion of  State  Universities,  at  Minneapolis  in  October,  1911,  by 
saying:  "So  far  as  I  know,  there  is  a  general  consensus  of  opin- 
ion among  educators  that  it  is  advantageous  to  make  a  single  uni- 
versity for  a  given  State.  The  separation  of  a  part  of  higher 
education  into  a  university,  another  part  into  an  agricultural  and 
mechanical  college,  another  into  a  school  of  mines  necessarily  re- 
sults in  duplication."  Everything  implied  in  this  statement,  ex- 
cept the  fact  of  "duplication,"  may  be  questioned,  as  was  pointedly 
developed  in  the  discussion  that  followed.  One  of  the  speakers 
(the  president  of  a  State  university  whose  experience  includes 
eight  years'  service  as  the  president  of  an  agricultural  college) 


consolidated,  but  no  item  in  it  has  the  least  bearing  on  the  question 
before  us.  The  item  of  the  (sadly  brief)  catalog  characterized  as  "the 
latest  and  most  noteworthy  merger,"  is  the  union  of  Scio  College  and 
Mount  Union  College,  Ohio.  The  former  had  64  college  students  and  total 
income  of  $6550,  the  latter  127  students  and  income  of  about  $23,000. 
The  incident  is  recent,  but  why  so  "noteworthy"?  The  two  little  institu- 
tions were  under  the  direction  of  the  same  church  and  less  than  fifty 
miles  apart.  There  are  in  Ohio  over  forty  private  and  denominational 
colleges,  whereof  the  majority  ought  to  be  consolidated  or  abolished. 
Great  good  would  result.  But  siich  affairs  have  nothing  to  do  with  a 
State's  policy  concerning  two  firmly  established  institutions  of  standard 
rank.  It  ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  abolish  either  of  such  institutions 
to  prevent  useless  duplication  of  expensive  specialized  work,  or  technologi- 
cal branches  requiring  costly  equipment.  Really  wasteful  duplication  by 
two  state  institutions  is  immoral;  but  if  real,  it  is  provable.  If  proved, 
show  the  proof  to  the  presidents  and  governing  boards.  They  would  prob- 
ably adjust  the  matter.  If  not  they  should  be  criticized  until  it  is  cor- 
rected. The  important  point  would  be  to  prove  any  waste  or  other  injury 
in  a  given  duplication.  That  would  be  a  better  way  and  certainly  an 
easier  way,  than  to  attempt  to  abolish  a  large,  flourishing  college. 


8  THB    QUESTION   OF    DUPLICATION 

differed  diametrically,  holding:  "It  would  be  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  country  if  all  agricultural  col- 
leges were  made  parts  of  the  State  universities."  Eef erring  to  a 
particular  institution,  he  was  of  the  opinion  that  it  did  "more 
for  the  particular  purpose  for  which  it  was  instituted  by  very 
reason  of  its  separate  existence."  But  it  might  be  granted  that, 
abstractly,  or  as  an  original  design,  one  comprehensive  university 
should  be  preferred  to  more  than  one  institution,  yet  it  would  not 
follow  tnat  several  established  institutions  ought  always  to  be  re- 
duced to  one. 

Texas  may  well  determine  that  no  "School  of  Mines,"  or  any 
new  department,  shall  henceforth  be  established  as  a  separate  in- 
stitution; but  it  may  also  rest  contented  with  the  historical  de- 
velopments which  have  created  its  State  University,  Agricultural 
and  Mechanical  College,  and  State  College  for  Women.  The  ques- 
tion of  duplication  would  become  serious  for  such  institutions  only 
at  the  stage  of  graduate  departments,  and  in  the  case  of  certain 
technical  branches  that  require  very  costly  equipment.  ]STo  school 
of  mines,  for  instance,  ought  to  be  duplicated  in  them.  Graduate 
departments  in  the  full  sense  have  not  yet  come  into  existence  in 
Texas.  The  necessary  means  for  graduate  work,  such  as  would 
justify  advanced  students  in  seeking  in  this  State  the  specialist's 
degree  (the  doctorate),  have  never  yet  been  provided.  When  such 
developments  are  made  possible  for  the  University  of  Texas,  there 
should  be  little  danger  of  wasteful  duplication  in  the  other  state 
institutions.  If  the  scramble  before  each  Legislature  to  continue 
a  precarious  existence  is  replaced  by  a  sufficient  tax  apportioned 
in  a  fixed  ratio,  rational  hopes  may  be  cherished  that  the  separate 
institutions  will  be  administered  so  that  the  cost  will  not  be  se- 
riously increased  by  duplication,  and  that  mutual  stimulation  will 
conduce  to  a  steadily  improving  service.  In  the  second  part  of 
,this  study  (treating  of  internal  organization  and  administration) 
will  be  indicated  far  more  wasteful  application  of  teaching  force 


THE    QUESTION    OF   DUPLICATION  9 

than  could  be  involved  in  duplicated  undergraduate  work  of  two 
institutions.  There,  also,  will  be  considered  the  internal  effects 
of  rivalry  under  precarious  support. 

Finally,  while  duplication  beyond  undergraduate  work  is  gen- 
erally to  be  avoided  by  state  institutions,  in  regard  to  others  it 
should  be  understood  that  even  total  duplication  is  often  consistent 
with  true  economy  and  with  thoroughly  wholesome  conditions. 
The  establishment  of  Leland  Stanford  undoubtedly  helped  the 
University  of  California  immeasurably,  and  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago still  more  definitely  and  effectively  assisted  the  University 
of  Illinois.  The  president  of  the  University  of  Illinois  himself 
testified  last  July  in  an  address  before  the  National  Education 
Association,  that  the  "foundation  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
by  the  bold  and  striking  way  in  which  it  raised  high  aloft  the 
standard  of  science,  gave  an  impetus  to  the  university  idea  which 
made  the  work  of  [all  the  surrounding  universities]  more  ade- 
quate and  more  easy."  It  is  a  matter  of  high  congratulation  for 
the  people  of  Texas  that  the  Rice  Institute  of  Literature,  Science, 
and  Art  is  going  to  "duplicate"  many  of  the  undertakings  of  our 
State  institutions.  The  Johns  Hopkins  University  with  half  the 
endowment  of  the  Bice  Institute  caused  a  great  uplift  in  every  im- 
portant institution  of  learning  in  the  United  States.  Although  no 
such  unique  opportunity  is  open  to  the  Rice  lastitute,  its  untram- 
meled  self-government,  and  the  comprehensive  views  and  lofty 
ideals  and  practical  purposes  already  indicated  by  its  manage- 
ment, constitute  very  valid  grounds  of  hope  that  the  parallel  ac- 
tivities of  this  new  institution  will  in  due  time  prove  to  be  most 
beneficial  to  all  other  enterprises  for  higher  education  in  Texas. 


There  is  a  matter  that  ought  never  to  be  confused  with  the 
question  we  have  briefly  discussed,  which  I  shall  not  take  up  in 
this  study  at  all.  It  is  so  special,  and  in  some  States  so  impor- 
tant, that  it  should  be  treated  in  a  study  devoted  to  it  alone.  I 


10  THE    QUESTION   OF    DUPLICATION 

refer  to  cases  in  which  some  "school'''  of  a  university,  such  as  its 
school  of  medicine,  and  the  main  body  of  the  university  are  situ- 
ated in  different  localities.  It  may  be  remarked  in  passing,  how- 
ever, that  the  idea  and  practice  recently  wrought  out  by  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan  offer  to  any  one  desirous  of  studying  the  or- 
ganization and  conduct  of  university  schools  of  medicine  the  most 
significant  lessons  to  be  found  in  this  country.  The  existing  facts 
about  medical  education  and  a  discussion  of  the  organiza- 
tion and  administration  of  medical  schools  have  been  presented 
by  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching 
in  two  great  bulletins.  These  reports  by  Abraham  Flexner,  Med- 
ical Education  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  1910,  and  Med- 
ical Education  in  Europe,  1912,  ought  to  be  epoch  making. 


III.  INEXPEDIENCY  OF  A  CENTRAL  BOAED  OF 
CONTROL 

Logically,  the  notion  of  a  central  board  of  control  has  been  dis- 
posed of  by  showing  that  duplication  of  undergraduate  studies  in 
separate  institutions  is  not  injurious  and  may  be  advantageous, 
and  by  pointing  to  a  better  and  surer  remedy  for  the  evil  of  in- 
cessant rivalries  before  legislatures.  Nevertheless,  it  will  be  ad- 
vantageous to  discuss  directly  the  subject  of  a  central  board,  if 
only  because  logic  is  generally  ignored  by  persons  who  are  ever 
ready  to  approve  any  legislation  proposed  as  a  cure  for  an  evident 
disorder. 

Eespectable  advocates  of  a  central  board  of  control  all  see  great 
evil  and  greater  risk  in  such  a  board,  but  they  deem  it  a  lesser 
evil  than  "duplication"  and  "rivalry  before  legislatures."  Such 
is  the  attitude  of  President  Van  Hise,  whose  paper  upon  the  sub- 
ject, already  referred  to,  comprises  everything  that-  could  be  found 
in  less  vigorous  discussions  favoring  a  central  board  of  control.  He 
considers  the  dangerous  central  board  inevitable  unless  university 
and  agricultural  college  are  united  in  one  university,  or  overlap- 
ping is  kept  at  a  minimum.  Like  everyone  else,  he  has  only  two 
arguments.  Those  arguments,  having  been  dealt  with,  the  gloomy 
prophecies  based  upon  them  fall  with  their  foundations.  If  the 
"rivalry"  argument  be  removed  by  a  sufficient  and  definitely  appor- 
tioned state  tax,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  a  vague  objection  to 
"duplication"  could  be  deemed  more  weighty  than  the  downright 
objections  to  a  central  board  which  he  himself  indicates,  to  say 
nothing  of  others  that  exist. 

The  following  objections  are  acknowledged  by  President  Van 
Hise: 

"If  there  be  a  central  board  which  is  to  govern  several  institutions  at 
different  localities,  it  will  be  impossible  to  get  the  best  men  of  a  State 


12  OBJECTIONS   TO    CENTRAL   BOARDS 

to  give  sufficient  time  to  master  the  details  in  reference  to  them.  (They 
would  be  unwilling  to  take  a  position  involving  responsibility  for  several 
institutions  at  different  localities.)  Further,  if  compensation  be  offered, 
the  fact  that  the  service  is  not  free  will  make  men  of  the  highest  type 
reluctant  to  take  positions  on  such  boards.  To  illustrate:  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin,  for  many  years,  we  had  the  services  of  Colonel 
William  F.  Vilas.  No  cash  estimate  of  the  value  of  this  service  can  be 
made.  The  larger  part  of  his  estate  will  also  finally  go  to  the  uni- 
versity. Nothing  could  have  induced  Colonel  Vilas  to  accept  the  place  of 
regent  with  compensation.  If  compensation  of  a  board  be  small,  it  will 
be  composed  of  inferior  men;  if  it  be  large,  places  on  the  board  will  be 
sought  by  untit  men,  and  it  will  be  extremely  difficult  to  fill  the  positions 
without  political  interference." 

"A  difficulty  with  central  boards,  which  has  appeared  as  a  result  of 
experience,  is  that  some  of  the  men  are  interested  in  one  institution  and 
others  in  another;  and  this  has  led  to  trading  back  and  forth  in  grants 
to  the  different  institutions." 

"It  is  possible  in  such  a  board  to  have  the  special  friends  and  cham- 
pions of  each  of  the  institutions,  and  then  you  have  the  same  collisions 
and  collusion  of  interest  that  you  have  in  a  city  council  or  other  bodies 
of  similar  character." 

"Another  difficulty  with  central  boards  created  at  one  time  is  that  a 
break  is  thus  made  in  the  continuity  of  the  government  of  an  institution. 
The  recognized  aims  and  practices  which  have  grown  up  through  many 
years  are  likely  to  be  ignored  by  a  new  board  having  no  knowledge  of  or 
experience  with  the  several  institutions  which  they  are  to  govern." 

"It  is  not  wise  to  separate  educational  and  financial  control.  .  .  . 
Iowa  has  attempted  to  meet  difficulties  by  creating  a  non-paid  central 
board,  and  outside  of  this  board  a  finance  committee  of  three,  which  in 
large  measure  administers  the  institutions  under  the  general  principles 
laid  down  by  the  board.  Under  this  plan  a  finance  committee  may  be 
advantageous  where  a  central  board  is  inevitable,  but  undoubtedly  there 
are  grave  dangers  in  such  a  committee;  for  whenever  there  is  a  financial 
board  giving  full  time  to  the  administration  of  educational  affairs  there 
is  a  constant  tendency  for  them  to  take  the  initiative  in  reference  to 
policies,  and  to  supervise  and  circumscribe  the  faculty  in  their  educa- 


HISTORICAL   SUMMARY  13 

tional  work  in  a  manner  which  is  wholly  unwarranted,  and  is  contrary 
to  the  best  interests  of  higher  education." 

"An  additional  difficulty,  as  shown  by  experience,  is  that  there  is  a 
tendency  in  a  central  board  to  place  the  normal  school  in  the  same  posi- 
tion of  dignity  as  the  university."  [This  refers  to  the  practice  in  sev- 
eral States  of  putting  totally  disparate  institutions  under  one  board. 
The  limit  of  that  mistake  is  reached  when  university,  agricultural  col- 
lege, normal  schools,  schools  for  blind,  deaf,  and  feeble-minded,  and 
reform  schools  are  put  under  one  board.] 

Historical  Summary 

The  States  that  have  had  any  experience  with  central  boards  of 
control  are  Florida,  Georgia,  Iowa,  Missisippi,  Montana,  Okla- 
homa, Oregon,  South  Dakota,  West  Virginia.  Their  practices,  in 
my  judgment,  represent  the  worst  possible  devices.  The  opinions 
o.f  men  dependent  upon  the  central  boards  are  conflicting,  but  the 
short  histories  reveal  only  warning  examples.  The  vagaries  of 
rash  legislation  in  the  respective  States  are  summarized  as  follows : 

Florida. — Bad  conditions  called  for  some  remedy,  and  doubtless  some  of 
the  institutions  ought  to  have  been  abolished.  All  existing  institutions 
were  abolished,  and  a  state  university  including  normal  school  for  men, 
a  State  College  for  Women,  an  A.  and  M.  College  for  Negroes,  a  Normal 
Colored  School,  and  an  Institution  for  Blind,  Deaf,  and  Dumb  were 
established.  The  permanent  arrangement  for  the  government  of  these 
institutions  is  perhaps  the  worst  that  could  be  devised.  One  board  of 
control  was  put  over  them  all,  of  five  members,  none  to  be  appointed 
from  any  county  in  which  any  of  the  institutions  is  located;  but  this 
board  was  made  "at  all  times  under  and  subject  to  the  control  and 
supervision  of  the  State  Board  of  Education."  The  latter  consists  of 
Governor,  Secretary  of  State,  Attorney  General,  State  Treasurer,  and 
State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction.  Although  a  sovereign  State 
has  committed  this  act,  the  mere  statement  of  its  provisions  sufficiently 
exposes  its  errors.  Satisfaction  with  the  enlargement  of  the  university 
resulting  from  the  abolishment  of  several  weak  and  low-grade  colleges 
may  blind  some  eyes  to  impending  evils;  but  the  strife,  and  the  dead- 
lock over  the  election  of  the  president  of  the  university,  already  experi- 


14  HISTORICAL   SUMMARY 

enced>  are  but  foretastes  of  worse  evils  yet  to  come.  For  details  the 
reader  ds  referred  to  President  Pritchett's  fourth  annual  report  to  the 
Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching. 

Georgia. — All  institutions  (white  and  negro)  including  normal  schools 
are  branches  of  the  university,  and  under  a  board  consisting  of  the  trus- 
tees of  the  University  of  Georgia,  the  presidents  of  each  institution  con- 
cerned ( except  the  university ) ,  the  Governor,  and  George  Foster  Pea- 
body.  There  is  no  need  of  the  Chancellor's  testimony  that  "the  method 
of  government  involves  many  difficulties." 

Iowa-. — In  1909  a  law  was  enacted  which  put  the  University  of  Iowa, 
A.  and  M.  College,  and  State  Teachers'  College  under  a  board  composed 
of  nine  members,  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor.  It  is  provided  that 
not  more  than  one  alumnus  of  any  institution  concerned  shall  be  on  the 
board.  The  board  appoints  a  finance  committee  of  three,  not  members 
of  the  board,  nor  more  than  two  from  one  political  party,  at  a  salary  of 
$3500  a  year  and  expenses.  President  Van  Hise's  just  criticism  of  the 
last  mentioned  feature  has  been  quoted.  It  may  be  noted  (without  prej- 
udice) that,  during  the  first  year  of  the  board's  authority,  the  president 
of  the  university,  the  president  of  the  agricultural  college,  and  the  dean 
of  the  law  school  resigned. 

Mississippi. — In  1910  four  institutions  were  put  under  one  board  of 
eight  appointed  by  the  Governor. 

Montana.. — In  1909  all  educational  institutions,  including  orphans' 
home,  school  for  deaf  and  blind,  and  a  reform  school,  were  put  under  a 
board  of  education  of  eleven  members,  eight  appointed,  three  ex-officio. 
A  subordinate  local  board  of  three  members  is  provided  at  each  institu- 
tion, one  of  whom  is  the  president  of  the  institution.  The  local  board 
can  not  expend  for  a  single  purpose  an  amount  exceeding  $250.  But 
there  is  a  further  complication:  the  ex-officio  members  of  the  board  of 
control  (Governor,  Attorney  General,  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion) constitute  a  separate  and  supreme  board  in  all  financial  matters. 
President  Van  Hise  judges  that  this  Montana  way  shows  "a  larger  num- 
ber of  objectionable  features  than  any  other  system."  Recalling  my  own 
assignment  of  Florida  to  that  bad  eminence,  I  stand  corrected.  They  are 
on  a  parity  except  that  Montana  adds  the  petty  local  boards,  and  also 
adds  a  penal  school  and  orphans'  home  to  the  school  for  blind  and  deaf 
and  the  other  institutions. 

Oklahoma. — In  1911  the  Legislature  created  a  State  Board  of  Education 
consisting  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  and  six  other 


HISTORICAL    SUMMARY  15 

members  serving  without  salary  appointed  by  the  Governor.  The  ex- 
officio  member  has  his  salary  of  $2500.  Absurd  as  it  may  seem,  this 
board  is  required  to  exercise  exclusive  supervision  and  control  over  the 
whole  common  school  system  (including  duties  of  a  State  Text-Book 
Board,  and  a  board  of  examiners  for  issuing  teachers'  certificates),  and 
over  eighteen  different  institutions,  viz.,  state  university,  two  prepara- 
tory schools,  school  of  mines,  college  for  girls,  six  normal  schools,  agri- 
cultural and  normal  university  for  negroes,  school  for  blind,  school  for 
deaf,  school  fer  feeble-minded,  school  for  orpha-ns,  reform  school,  and  an 
orphanage  and  school  for  defectives  for  negroes.  The  agricultural  col- 
leges were  not  put  under  this  board  because  the  Constitution  placed  them 
under  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture.  The  short  but  stormy  history  of 
this  application  of  the  central-board-of-control  idea  may  be  read  in  Presi- 
dent Pritchett's  sixth  annual  report.  The  heads  of  six  of  the  institu- 
tions, including  the  university,  and  more  than  half  of  the  members  of 
their  faculties  were  summarily  removed.  Some  removals  were  made 
against  the  advice  of  both  the  removed  and  the  new  presidents.  The  new 
appointees  were  chosen  by  the  Board,  without  nomination  by  responsible 
administrative  officers,  from  "applications"  made  directly  to  the  board. 
It  would  be  irrelevant  to  consider  the  merits  or  demerits  of  individuals 
involved.  If  it  were  granted  that  all  persons  dismissed  were  either  in- 
jurious or  inefficient,  it  is  certainly  incredible  that  the  majority  of  the 
new  appointments,  derived  as  stated,  could  have  been  made  wisely.  Good 
intentions  on  the  part  of  members  of  the  board  does  not  ameliorate  the 
situation.  The  method  of  procedure  was  fatally  wrong.  The  condition 
of  the  patient  may  have  been  very  bad,  but  the  intended  remedy  must 
prove  worse  than  the  disease.  President  Pritchett  says  of  the  situation: 
"No  real  university  can  exist  under  such  conditions."  President  Van 
Hise  says,  that,  for  the  present,  "it  would  be  extraordinary  if  any  man 
of  ability  who  has  a  fa/ir  place  in  another  State  should  accept  a  position 
in  any  of  the  educational  institutions  in  the  State  of  Oklahoma." 

Oregon. — A  board  of  four,  appointed  by  the  Governor,  known  as  the 
Board  of  Higher  Curricula,  passes  on  all  the  courses  offered  at  the  uni- 
versity and  at  the  agricultural  college.  It  is  in  the  power  of  this  board 
to  determine  absolutely  what  work  shall  be  given  at  each  institution. 

South  Dakota. — An  appointed  board  of  five  mebers,  salaries  of  $1000 
a  year,  govern  the  University,  A.  and  M.  College,  School  of  Mines,  and 
three  normal  schools.  A  number  of  difficulties  have  been  experienced. 

West  Virginia. — A  board  of  regents,  consisting  of  four  appointed  mem- 


16  HISTORICAL   SUMMARY 

IXTS  with  salaries  of  $1000  and  the  State  Superintendent,  was  created 
in  1909  to  govern  the  university,  agricultural  college,  two  preparatory 
schools,  six  normal  schools,  and  two  institutes  for  negroes.  But  the  same 
act  of  the  legislature  created  a  board  of  control  of  three,  appointed, 
salaries  $5000,  to  have  full  control  of  charitable  and  penal  institutions, 
and  also  "control  of  the  financial  and  business  affairs"  of  the  educational 
institutions.  This  control  goes  to  the  extent  of  approving  salaries  of  the 
teaching  force,  or  naming  a  total  amount  to  be  paid  for  instruction.  The 
board  of  regents  is  required  to  meet  with  the  board  of  control  when  the 
latter  so  desires.  Every  feature  of  this  law  violates  fundamental 
principles. 

Kansas. — The  Legislature  of  Kansas  recently  passed  an  act  abolishing 
the  boards  of  regents  of  the  university,  agricultural  college,  and  normal 
schools,  and  creating  one  board  of  control  of  three  members.  The  Gov- 
ernor vetoed  the  act.  Chancellor  Strong  of  the  University  of  Kansas, 
writing  in  October,  1911,  says:  "Agitation  over  duplication  led  to  the 
introduction  into  the  last  legislature  of  several  bills.  Some  contained 
grotesque  features.  The  bill  [that  was  passed]  provided  for  a  board  of 
•control  of  three  persons,  to  receive  $2500  per  year  each,  the  board  to 
•elect,  outside  of  its  own  number,  an  educational  expert  to  act  as  its  sec- 
Tetary,  at  the  same  salary.  Each  member  was  to  give  his  entire  time  to 
the  work  of  the  board.  .  .  .  There  were  then  serving  upon  the  dif- 
ferent boards  of  regents  some  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  State,  whose  serv- 
ices could  hardly  have  been  secured  at  any  price  if  one  had  attempted  to 
hire  them.  The  positions  contemplated  by  the  new  bill  were  offered  to 
several  of  these  men  and  refused.  The  Governor  was  told  that,  while 
they  would  gladly  serve  the  State  for  nothing  on  an  honorary  board,  they 
could  not  under  any  circumstances  accept  a  position  like  the  one  indi- 
cated. .  .  .  The  Governor  took  counsel  by  telegraph  with  many  uni- 
versity administrators,  who,  almost  without  exception,  advised  against 
the  bill.  The  grounds  of  objection  were,  in  the  main,  first,  that  the 
provision  for  an  educational  expert  as  secretary  would  almost  certainly 
interfere  with  the  internal  administration  of  the  institutions,  and  pro- 
duce friction  and  inefficiency;  secondly,  that  a  salaried  board,  especially 
at  the  salaries  indicated,  would  bring  mediocre  men  .  .  .  ;  thirdly, 
that  the  method  proposed  would  almost  certainly  invade  the  real  person- 
ality of  each  institution,  take  away  its  fundamental  and  individual  char- 
acteristics, and  so  deprive  it  of  its  real  independence.  ...  As  it 
was  expressed  by  one  college  administrator,  the  University  of  Kansas 


HISTORICAL   SUMMARY  17 

needs  to  keep  its  own  soul  as  much  as  Harvard  does.  .  .  .  The  bill 
was  vetoed."  Vice-President  Carruth  summarized  the  history  for  the 
National  Association  of  State  Universities  as  follows:  "We  were  threat- 
ened last  winter  with  what  is  known  as  the  Keene  bill.  A  board  of 
control  of  three  members  at  salaries  of  $2500,  with  an  'educational  ex- 
pert' as  secretary  at  the  same  salary,  was  to  manage  our  state  insti- 
tutions of  higher  education — to  be  placed  over  the  heads  of  these  insti- 
tions,  each  of  whom  commands  a  salary  of  $6000.  You  can  anticipate 
what  the  results  would  have  been.  But  I  want  to  say  that  the  State  of 
Kansas  owes  a  debt  to  the  members  of  this  Association.  Governor  Stubbs 
sought  advice  from  many  of  you;  and  the  Governor  deserves  to  be  highly 
commended  for  seeking  competent  counsel  and  then  following  it.  Your 
advice,  together  with  the  earnest  protest  of  the  chancellor  of  our  State 
University,  resulted  in  the  vetoing  of  the  bill  and  the  saving  of  our  State 
and  university,  for  the  present  at  least,  from  the  threatened  calamity."* 

The  Governor,  before  vetoing  the  bill,  asked  the  board  of  regents  of 
each  institution  whether,  if  he  vetoed  the  Keene  bill,  they  would  volun- 
tarily organize  the  three  boards  into  a  commission,  to  consult  on  the 
general  welfare  and  make  recommendations  to  each  separate  board  as 
might  seem  wise,  authority  still  to  lie  in  the  separate  boards.  There  is, 
therefore,  in  Kansas  an  extra-legal  commission,  of  which  the  Governor 
is  chairman,  made  up  of  all  the  members  of  three  boards  of  regents.  Its 
counsels  have  resulted  in  a  uniform  system  of  accounting  and  business 
management.  Committees  are  working  on  various  internal  problems. 

President  Van  Hise  says :  "The  most  serious  danger  of  a  commission 
such  as  that  of  Kansas,  composed  of  an  equal  number  of  representatives 
from  each  board,  is  that  several  weaker  institutions  may  unite  against 
a  stronger  one  and  so  prevent  its  growth.  .  .  .  Each  having  equal 
representation  upon  the  commission,  the  representatives  of  the  institu- 
tions other  than  the  university  may  unite  and  unduly  limit  the  scope  of 
the  university;  not  only  so,  but  they  may  recommend  more  than  propor- 
tional support  for  the  weaker  institutions,  and  aim  to  make  them  the 
equals  of  the  university."  This  is  certainly  wise  foresight,  and  many 
other  evil  contingencies  are  equally  foreseeable.  It  is,  therefore,  sur- 
prising that  the  same  writer  should  conclude  his  remarks  by  saying: 
"If  it  works  out  that  the  recommendations  of  the  commission  are  rea- 
sonably respected  by  the  different  boards,  the  natural  step  would  be  to 


•See  Appendix — Some  Recent  Events. 


18  HISTORICAL    SUMMARY 

legalize  the  commission  and  give  its  actions  the  sanction  of  law."  I 
understand  him  to  use  "natural"  in  a  commendatory  sense;  but,  in  my 
judgment,  the  statement  that  such  a  step  is  the  natural  course,  is  to 
assert  that  only  folly  is  to  be  expected  of  state  legislatures.  Voluntary 
consultation  and  co-operation  is  always  desirable.  It  is  undoubtedly  the 
proper  course,  especially  upon  certain  occasions.  But  why, — in  the  name 
of  sober  intelligence, — if  voluntary  consultation  works  well,  should  it  be 
"natural"  to  replace  it  by  compulsory  subjection  to  a  joint  commission, 
or  any  other  sort  of  central  control? 

Minnesota. — There  is  only  one  comprehensive  state  institution  of 
higher  education  in  Minnesota,  and  the  question  of  a  central  board  of 
control  could  not  arise.  Yet  that  State  has  had  an  experience  which  is 
both  interesting  and  encouraging,  in  its  bearing  on  the  question  of  a 
dual  control  of  any  one  institution.  In  1901  a  board  of  control  was  put 
over  the  regents  of  the  university  in  all  financial  transactions.  The 
regents  resisted  for  two  years,  but  their  attempt  to  relieve  the  univer- 
sity failing  in  1903,  they  became  subject  to  the  board  of  control.  "After 
two  years'  trial,  conditions  were  such  as  to  make  further  continuation 
of  the  arrangement  wholly  intolerable."  In  1905  the  legislature,  by  a 
nearly  unanimous  vote,  gave  the  long  sought  relief.  One  bad  consequence 
of  the  original  mistake  of  1901  remains.  In  the  placing  of  insurance, 
purchase  of  fuel,  and  erection  of  buildings  the  board  of  regents  still 
remains  subject  to  another  state  board.  The  legal  theory  that  the  board 
of  regents  is  incompetent  or  untrustworthy  for  buying  insurance  and 
fuel,  is  irritating;  but  those  matters  are  so  petty  that  they  could  not 
cause  directly  any  serious  misgovernment.  New  buildings,  on  the  con- 
trary, are  important  affairs,  and  are  so  intimately  connected  with  the 
educational  work  for  which  the  institution  is  conducted  that  a  separate 
government  of  that  matter  must  have  many  injurious  consequences. 

The  preceding  paragraphs  have  briefly  summarized  all  experi- 
ence with  central  boards  of  control.  President  Van  Hise  admits 
that  the  experience  has  not  been  encouraging.  I  understand  that 
his  own  preference,  where  consolidation  in  one  institution  is  not 
practicable,  is  for  co-operation  through  "a  commission  composed 
of  representatives  of  each  of  the  institutional  boards."  But  his 
conclusion  is  that,  where  consolidation  is  not  practicable,  it  is  so 
"necessary  to  have  sharp  delimitation  of  scopes  (to  avoid  over- 


HISTORICAL   SUMMARY  19 

lapping),  and  co-operation  in  financial  requests  to  the  legisla- 
ture/' that  "if  co-operation  be  not  successful,  central  boards  are 
inevitable." 

We  are  left  to  marvel  why  so  bad  an  end  is  inevitable,  even  if 
living,  thriving  institutions  refuse  to  give  up  their  separate  exist- 
ence and  continue  to  duplicate  or  parallel  some  of  the  teachino- 

O 

that  is  done  in  a  university.  Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  everywhere 
men  will  see  those  evils  of  a  central  board  of  control  which  Presi- 
dent Van  Hise  himself  mentions,  not  to  mention  many  others, 
only  to  forget  them?  Will  "duplication"  or  "overlapping"  seem 
such  a  horrible  idea  to  everyone,  or  a  little  extra  expense  appear 
so  fearsome,  that,  to  escape  them,  the  known  evils  of  a  central 
board  will  be  embraced? 

Of  course,  a  temporary  commission  might  be  needed  in  some 
situations,  such  as  that  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  in  order  to  pre- 
pare legislation  for  defining  the  general  nature  and  scope  of  several 
ill-adjusted  institutions.  Virginia  has  more  (four),  and  prob- 
ably less  advantageously  correlated,  state-supported  colleges  grant- 
ing academic  and  professional  degrees  than  any  other  State.  A 
commission  for  such  a  purpose  is  one  thing,  and  a  central  board 
permanently  controlling  subordinated  boards  is  another  and  very 
different  affair. 

If  duplication  were  truly  an  essentially  bad  and  wasteful  thing, 
the  only  wise  course  would  be  to  abolish  our  A.  and  M.  College 
and  College  for  Girls  and  confine  the  State's  higher  educational 
work  in  one  institution.  Happily,  no  one  need  think  so  ill  of 
"duplication"  or  even  of  "overlapping."  In  no  event,  it  seems  to 
me,  would  it  be  wise  either  to  replace  our  properly  independent 
boards  of  regents  by  a  central  board,  or  to  subordinate  them  to  a 
superior  board  of  control.  There  is  no  need  to  add  to  the  reasons 
already  stated,  to  show  the  inexpediency  of  a  central  board,  either 
with  or  without  inferior  boards;  but  concerning  the  latter  I  may 
add  one  important  consideration,  not  yet  mentioned,  to  wit:  de- 


20  THE   STANDARD   SYSTEM 

sirable  men  would,  in  general,  refuse  to  serve  on  the  subordinate 
boards. 

The  Standard  System. 

The  independence  of  their  governing  boards  characterizes  the 
standard  form  of  government  for  state  universities,  from  which 
only  discredited  innovations  have  deviated;  but  there  is  great  di- 
versity in  the  number  of  members  and  term  of  office, — the  latter 
varying  from  two  years  to  life-tenure.  The  prevailing  method 
of  appointment  is  by  the  governor  of  the  State,  impaired  in  some 
cases  by  ex  officio  accessions.  Appointment  by  popular  election, 
as  in  Michigan  and  Illinois  is  the  chief  variation,  and  peculiar 
exceptions  exist,  such  as  (in  Iowa)  the  election  by  the  legislature 
of  a  trustee  for  each  congressional  district,  and  (in  Indiana)  elec- 
tion by  the  State  Board  of  Education.  The  popular  election  of 
trustees  has  worked  well  only  when  political  conventions  have  con- 
ceded the  selection  of  university  regents  to  disinterested  friends 
of  the  institution  and  made  the  nominations  regardless  of  politics. 
For  instance,  Mr.  Peter  White,  a  Democrat,  was  nominated  for 
regent  of  the  University  of  Michigan  by  a  Eepublican  conven- 
tion. Where  nominations  for  popular  election  must  be  secured 
through  primary  elections,  the  laws  governing  such  primaries 
generally  confine  to  one  party  all  candidates  on  one  ticket;  and  it 
is  practically  impossible  for  the  office  to  seek  the  man,  the  party 
voters  merely  choosing  between  self-constituted  office  seekers.  Men 
who  would  accept  the  great  responsibility  from  a  governor,  or 
from  a  state  convention  under  favorable  circumstances,  would 
hardly  seek  nomination  in  a  primary  election.  Ex-officio  mem- 
bership is  deemed  by  all  thoughtful  observers,  without  exception 
as  far  as  I  have  found,  "the  worst  of  all"  methods  of  appointment. 

The  legislatures  of  a  few  States  have  adopted  various  devices  to 
direct  or  restrict  the  executive  authority  in  the  appointment  of 
governing  boards.  The  contrivances  have  not  operated  beneficially. 
Many  reasons  have  been  suggested  in  this  chapter  for  judging  that 


THE    STANDARD   SYSTEM  21 

any  such  policy  would  be  a  mistake.  It  is  wiser  to  trust  to  the 
honesty  of  governors,  and  the  force  of  public  opinion. 

The  private  corporation  of  an  endowed  college  or  university 
may  properly  be  required  by  its  charter  to  have  in  its  body  repre- 
sentatives of  certain  close  interests  (such  as  the  alumni,  the  lo- 
cality, etc.) ;  but  if  representation  of  any  special  interest  in  the 
governing  board  of  a  state  university  were  required  by  law,  a 
wanton  temptation  would  be  extended  to  a  horde  of  other  interests 
to  demand  "recognition."  If  a  representative  farmer  were  re- 
quired, representation  might  soon  be  demanded  by  labor  unions, 
mothers'  congresses,  and  federations  of  various  sorts.  All  inhabi- 
tants of  the  State  have  indeed  an  interest  in  education,  but  in  the 
government  of  a  university  the  interests  of  no  classes  ought  to  be 
distinguished  by  law.  It  is  vastly  better  to  leave  the  matter  to 
the  good  sense  and  honesty  of  the  governor. 

A  term  of  office  for  the  regents  three  or  four  times  the  length 
of  the  governor's  term,  is  the  intelligent  precaution  to  be  taken 
by  the  legislature  against  political  abuses.  Bi-  or  tri-partisan,  of 
or  not  of  the  county  of  the  institution,  of  or  not  of  the  alumni 
(to  mention  half  a  dozen  extant  specimens),  or  any  such  require- 
ment, is  an  abuse  of  power  by  the  legislature  likely  to  do  harm. 
In  the  best  practice  the  law  merely  directs  the  governor  to  ap- 
point qualified  voters  (sometimes  adding  that  he  shall  select  the 
members  of  the  board  from  "different  portions  of  the  State"), 
and  requires  that  the  appointments  be  confirmed  by  the  senate. 

We  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  government  of  a  state  uni- 
versity by  an  independent  board  of  regents  is  a  form  of  govern- 
ment well  adapted  to  the  conditions  that  developed  in  the  United 
States  of  America.  The  following  statement  by  Chancellor  Strong 
of  the  University  of  Kansas  emphasizes  an  historical  argument : 

"The  American  college,  of  which  the  state  university,  in  spite  of  the 
differentiation  of  its  functions  into  technical  and  professional  schools,  is 
an  example,  is  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  old.  Allowing  for  a 
few  modifications  and  exceptions,  the  method  of  government  that  has 


22  THE    STANDARD   SYSTEM 

grown  up  through  this  long  experience  is  the  one  now  in  use.  It  is, 
therefore,  the  product  of  the  best  experience  of  the  New  World  in  univer- 
sity administration.  ...  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that,  to  justify 
a  change  in  method  of  government  in  any  particular  university,  it  ought 
to  appear  that  the  results  in  the  institution  are  abnormal  and  in  quality 
and  quantity  quite  below  those  of  colleges  and  universities  in  general. 
If  there  is  this  condition,  evidently  something  is  wrong,  and  it  is  to  be 
found  in  one  of  two  things:  either  in  the  method  of  government  itself, 
or  in  the  application  of  the  method  of  government  by  the  university  in 
question. 

"If  the  method  of  government  is  faulty,  its  defects  ought  to  appear  in 
the  one  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  universities  and  colleges  in  North 
America  of  sufficient  standing  and  endowment  to  be  listed  in  the  great 
report  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation  in  1908.  A  thorough  examination  into 
the  facts  would  easily  show  whether  this  is  the  case.  From  all  that  can 
be  determined,  the  universities  and  colleges  of  North  America  show  no 
such  defects.  If  the  defect  lies  in  the  application  by  any  given  university 
of  this  method  of  government,  it  ought  to  appear  that  the  institution  in 
its  growth  and  development,  in  the  quality  of  its  work,  in  its  standing 
among  standard  institutions  in  North  America,  and  in  other  essential 
respects  does  not  conform  to  the  average  standard  of  American  institu- 
tions. This  also  could  easily  be  determined  by  a  careful  examination 
into  the  facts. 

"Of  late  there  have  been  a  few  deviations  from  the  usual  method  of 
university  government,  because  of  conditions  arising  in  States  where  the 
agricultural  college  and  the  university  are  separate.  .  .  .  The  chances 
are  against  their  success." 

The  deviations  alluded  to  by  Chancellor  Strong  have  been  de- 
scribed and  briefly  discussed  in  this  chapter.  The  specific  nature 
of  and  genuine  remedies  for  the  various  troubles  that  are  now  man- 
ifest in  many  American  universities  are  to  be  discussed  in  Part  II 
of  this  study — dealing  with  internal  organization  and  administra- 
tion. Only  such  as  arise  from  the  structural  foundation  fixed  by 
the  legislature  are  clirectly  considered  in  Part  I.  None  of  them,  it 
may  be  believed,  spring  from  the  standard  method  of  government. 
Commissioner  Draper's  general  diagnosis  (see  page  3)  is  doubt- 
less correct. 


NEEDED  ADJUSTMENT  OF  TEXAS  SYSTEM  23 

r 

President  Van  Hise  summarizes  the  question  thus:  "The  ad- 
vantage of  each  large  educational  institution  having  a  separate 
board  is  obvious.  The  experience  of  hundreds  of  years  in  this 
country  both  with  endowed  and  tax-supported  institutions  shows 
that  a  non-paid  board  of  somewhere  between  seven  and  twenty  in 
number  is  the  best  method  of  governing  an  educational  institution. 
The  position  of  trustee  or  regent  is  always  one  of  high  honor,  and 
the  best  men  in  the  state  in  all  lines  of  endeavor  are  willing  to 
serve.  The  unbought  service  of  men  of  the  highest  character  and 
greatest  ability  in  the  state  as  trustees  and  regents  has  been  one  of 
the  important  factors  in  the  wise  and  rapid  development  of  higher 
education  in  this  country.  Even  when  in  highly  remunerative 
professional  work,  they  are  willing  to  take  sufficient  time  to  do 
their  part  in  the  government  of  a  university.  If,  however,  the 
task  assigned  to  any  one  board  is  as  complex  as  it  is  likely  to  be 
where  it  must  deal  with  two  or  more  institutions  at  different  lo- 
calities, it  is  not  practicable  for  a  first  class  man  in  active  life  to 
give  the  necessary  time  to  this  work." 

Only  Needed  Adjustment  fen-  the  Texas  System. 

The  only  needed  adjustment  of  the  established  organization  of 
the  independent  governing  boards  of  the  three  Texas  institutions 
concerns  the  present  two-years  term  of  office  of  regent  and  sim- 
ultaneous expiration  of  the  terms  of  all  the  members  of  each  board. 
A  constitutional  amendment  permitting  thorough  correction  of 
those  defects  has  been  already  submitted  to  the  people  and  will 
be  voted  on  in  the  approaching  general  election.  If  the  pending 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  is  adopted,  and  if  the  legislature 
follows  it  by  fixing  the  terms  of  office  at  six  years,  one-third  of 
the  members  of  each  board  to  be  appinted  every  two  years,  Texas 
may  well  rest  satisfied  with  its  present  system  of  governing  boards 
for  its  state  institutions  of  higher  education. 


IV.     STATE  NOKMAL  SCHOOLS 

The  importance  of  the  enormous  work  of  preparing,  as  well  as 
may  be,  teachers  for  the  common  schools  could  hardly  be  over- 
estimated; but  there  is  especial  need  at  the  present  time  to  con- 
sider the  question  calmly  and  with  discriminating  knowledge. 
State  normal  schools  have  a  peculiar  purpose,  which  is  carried  out 
best  under  a  distinct  organization.  In  government  they  should 
not  be  combined  with  universities  and  advanced  schools  of  tech- 
nology. Like  all  other  institutions,  they  should  never  be  gov- 
erned by  ex-officio  boards;  but  several  state  normal  schools  may, 
with  some  practical  advantages,  be  put  under  one  board  of  con- 
trol. Only  those  who  do  not  understand  educational  work  in  its 
different  spheres  will  confuse  this  case  with  that  of  universities 
and  agricultural  colleges.  In  the  case  of  normal  schools  it  is  for 
the  very  reason  that  "duplication"  is  thoroughgoing,  that  one 
board  of  control  for  all  of  them  may  be  advantageous.  A  wise 
board  will  never  impose  or  admire  exact  uniformity;  but  will  en- 
courage spontaneous  variations  suitable  to  local  conditions  or  to 
different  faculties.  Yet  the  main  purpose  of  the  normal  schools 
is  so  special  and  so  identical  for  all,  and  the  policy  of  the  State 
to  deal  with  them  on  a  parity  is  so  fixed,  that  the  superior  chances 
of  improvement  through  free  variation  under  separate  boards,  may 
properly  be  sacrificed  to  the  simplicity  and  harmony  attainable 
through  one  governing  board. 

Until  recently  the  state  normal  schools  of  Texas  were  governed 
by  an  ex-officio  board  of  three  members.  In  1904  the  present 
writer,  in  his  biennial  report  as  State  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction,  advised  the  Legislature :  "It  is  unwise  to  burden  the 
Governor,  Comptroller,  and  Secretary  of  State  with  the  detailed 
executive  control  of  the  state  normal  schools.  The  public  inter- 
ests would  be  subserved  by  the  enactment  of  a  law  directing  the 
Governor  to  appoint  a  normal  school  board  of  five  members  to 


NORMAL    SCHOOL   REGENTS  25 

manage  and  control  the  state  normal  schools,  whose  terms  of  office 
ought  to  be  the  maximum  allowed  by  the  Constitution."  Six 
years  passed  before  that  progressive  step  was  taken  by  the  First 
Called  Session  of  the  Thirty-second  Legislature.  The  present 
"State  Normal  School  Board  of  Regents,"  however,  consists  of 
four  appointed  members  and  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public 
Instruction.  It  would,  of  course,  have  been  wiser  to  have  pro- 
vided that  all  of  the  regents  should  be  appointed;  but  the  Texas 
boards  are  now  freer  from  ex-officio  members  (the  only  other  in- 
stance being  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  on  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  A.  and  M.  College)  than  is  the  case  in  many  other 
States.  In  such  matters  it  is  usually  advisable  to  "let  well  enough 
alone.'  The  pending  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  already  men- 
tioned, covers  all  the  "educational,  eleemosynary,  and  penal  in- 
stitutions of  the  State."  If  that  amendment  is  adopted,  and  the 
Legislature  puts  it  into  effect  by  lengthening  the  term  of  office 
of  the  regents  or  trustees  of  all  the  State  institutions  to  six  years, 
one-third  of  the  members  of  each  board  to  be  appointed  every  two 
years,  there  will  remain  no  serious  defect  in  the  organization  of 
any  of  the  governing  boards. 

It  has  been  the  simultaneous  expiration  of  the  terms  of  all 
members  of  the  boards  which  in  theory  have  governed  the  schools 
for  defectives  and  penal  institutions,  that  has  in  fact,  in  the  past, 
precipitated  those  institutions  into  the  arena  of  political  office- 
seeking,  and  put  upon  the  governors  of  the  State  the  burden  of 
their  patronage.  Such  complications  would  be  obviated  by  the 
appointment  every  two  years  of  only  one-third  of  the  members  of 
the  boards  in  question.  Those  boards  would  forthwith  acquire  the 
dignity  and  independent  responsibility  of  the  regents  of  the  higher 
educational  institutions,  and  succeeding  governors  of  the  State 
would  be  relieved  of  a  burden  hitherto  imposed  upon  them  by  an 
evil  custom. 


26  CORRELATION  WITH  COLLEGES 

Correlation  With  Colleges 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  study  to  deal  with  the  in- 
ternal organization  or  work  of  normal  schools;  but  there  is  one 
question  concerning  their  correlation  with  universities,  which  needs 
to  be  made  clear.  The  question  is  of  great  importance  every- 
where, and,  from  it,  at  the  present  juncture  in  Texas,  might  arise 
a  crisis  involving  the  whole  future  of  the  State's  educational  en- 
terprises. A  strong  movement  is  afoot  among  us  for  the  uplift- 
ing and  expansion  of  educational  institutions  of  every  sort.  It 
behooves  all  upon  whom  responsibility  rests,  or  who  assume  re- 
sponsibility for  the  definite  measures  that  must  finally  express  the 
vision  and  enthusiasm  of  the  movement,  to  attain  clear  views  of 
both  means  and  ends. 

A  tendency  has  appeared  in  several  states  (e.  g.,  Illinois,  Kan- 
sas, Colorado)  to  turn  their  normal  schools  into  colleges  grant- 
ing degrees.  Simultaneously  many  universities,  including  nearly 
all  flourishing  state  universities,  have  established  departments  or 
schools  of  education.  The  University  of  Texas  organized  its  "De- 
partment of  Education"*  in  1907,  and  it  has  been  standardized  by 
its  present  admission  requirement  of  two  years  (ten  courses)  in 
the  College  of  Arts. 

If  the  state  normal  schools  were  to  be  transformed  into  col- 
leges, there  would  ensue  a  repeated  duplication  between  each  of 
the  normal  colleges  and  the  university  which  would  truly  be  ex- 
travagant if  the  work  were  honestly  performed,  or  be  a  dishonest 
travesty  if  the  transformation  were  only  'on  paper/  There  is 
almost  unanimity  of  expert  opinion  that  any  attempt  to  transform 
state  normal  schools  into  colleges  is  "most  unfortunate."  In  discus- 
sions of  the  question  by  the  National  Association  I  find  only  one 
dissenting  voice,  and  that  dissent  arose,  apparently,  through  the 
confusion  of  two  questions,  the  second  being  whether  high  school 


*The  nomenclature  adopted  by  the  National  Association  of  State  Uni- 
versities  would  employ  the  term  School  of  Education. 


CORRELATION  WITH  COLLEGES  27 

teachers  ought  always  to  be  college  graduates.  It  came,  more- 
over, from  one  of  the  state  universities  of  Ohio,  a  state  in  which 
conditions  are  confusing  for  any  comparison  with  other  states. 
Ohio  maintains  three  state  universities,  Ohio  University,  Miami 
University,  and  the  Ohio  State  University.  About  ten  years  ago 
it  was  deemed  expedient  to  largely  specialize  two  of  those  insti- 
tutions by  establishing  a  high  class  "normal  college"  at  Ohio 
University  and  another  at  Miami  University,  in  addition  to  sev- 
eral ordinary  state  normal  schools.  Evidently  these  normal  col- 
leges in  Ohio  are  analogous  rather  to  the  School  of  Education  of 
the  usual  state  university  than  to  the  usual  type  of  state  normal 
schools. 

The  third  year  of  college  teaching  demands  for  its  various 
departments  a  large  staff  of  men  of  high  rank.  There  begins 
the  work  of  the  college  that  advances  to  the  expensive  stage.  The 
accordant  correlation  of  the  normal  school  and  the  university 
seems  clear.  Under  favorable  circumstances  (primarily  dependent 
upon  fully  adequate  appropriations)  the  state  normal  schools 
might  be  advantageously  expanded  so  as  to  cover  the  first  two 
years  of  the  college.  If  that  expansion  is  established,  the  courses 
in  professional  training  should  be  made  optional  in  the  normal 
schools,  so  that  students  might  transfer  from  the  state  normals  to 
the  university,  and  obtain  a  degree  in  the  latter  in  two  more  years. 
The  number  of  students  in  the  normals  would  be  increased,  and 
the  faculties  of  those  schools  would  need  to  be  greatly  strength- 
ened. The  work  of  the  first  two  college  years  might  thus  be  suit- 
ably performed  by  the  State  at  several  points.  The  expense  would 
probably  be  less  than  if  all  such  instruction  were  concentrated  in 
the  university, — certainly  less  to  the  students  concerned,  if  not 
to  the  State.  There  may  be,  also,  some  freshmen  and  sophomore 
students  who  might,  for  other  than  economic  reasons,  properly 
prefer  to  get  the  first  two  years  of  the  college  course  in  the  smaller 
schools,  than  in  the  university. 

As  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  only  one  State  has  expressed 


28  CORRELATION  WITH  COLLEGES 

this  principle  in  a  law.  Wisconsin's  legislature  last  year  enacted 
the  following  law :  "The  board  of  normal  school  regents  may  ex- 
tend the  course  of  instruction  in  any  normal  school  so  that  any 
course,  the  admission  to  which  is  based  upon  graduation  from  an 
accredited  high  school  or  its  equivalent,  may  include  the  substan- 
tial equivalent  of  the  instruction  given  in  the  first  two  years  of 
a  college  course.  Such  course  of  instruction  shall  not  be  extended 
further  than  the  substantial  equivalent  of  the  instruction  given  in 
the  first  two  years  of  such  college  course  without  the  consent  of 
the  legislature."  That  act  of  the  legislature  was  accompanied 
by  a  large  increase  of  appropriations  for  the  normal  schools,  in 
order  that  they  might  have  the  necessary  means  to  do  effectively 
the  first  two  years  of  college  work.  The  regents  of  the  Wisconsin 
normal  schools  have  announced  that  "professional  studies"  will  no 
longer  be  required  of  all  students,  and  that  they  will  hereafter 
conduct  two  full  years  of  college  work,  as  well  as  the  professional 
curriculum. 

It  should  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  any  provision  for,  or  per- 
mission of  such  expansion  of  the  state  normal  schools,  ought  to 
be  coupled  with  an  absolute  delimitation  at  the  same  point.  If 
the  question  ever  arises  in  Texas,  the  permissive  act  of  the  Wis- 
consin legislature  is  a  good  model.  Of  course,  the  question  ought 
never  to  arise  until  the  normal  schools  can  require  high  school 
graduation  for  admission  to  the  new  two-years  curriculum,  and 
until  their  financial  basis  enables  them  to  get  proper  faculties  for 
such  work.  At  present,  the  Texas  state  normal  school  merely 
qualifies  its  graduates  for  entrance  to  the  university  with  a  credit 
of  one  course  of  freshman  work.  Their  teachers  are  paid  no  more 
than  the  better  sort  of  high  school  teachers. 

Both  the  normal  schools  and  the  universities  are  confronted 
today  bv  an  acute  need  for  energetic  and  wise  endeavors  on  their 
part  to  provide  a  greatly  improved  preparation  of  teachers  for  all 
stages  of  the  public  schools.  For  the  secondary  or  high  school 


PREPARATION   OF   TEACHERS  29 

stage  the  work  must  for  a  long  time  be  shared  by  normal  school 
and  university.  The  best  high  schools  are  already  demanding  a 
full  college  course  as  a  minimum  of  preparation  in  their  teachers. 
Books  on  the  subject  like  Professor  Luckey's  and  reports  of  com- 
mittees of  the  National  Education  Association  indicate  but  a 
small  part  of  a  public  demand  that  is  growing  threatening.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  weaker  schools  must  not  be  neglected.  Also, 
there  is  a  critical  need  for  teachers  especially  prepared  for  the  high 
schools  and  semi-high  schools  of  the  villages  and  rural  districts. 
That  need  ought  to  have  been  felt  and  seen  by  normal  school 
authorities  sooner  and  more  clearly  than  by  anyone  else;  but — 
speaking  of  the  entire  country — they  still  seem  even  deaf  to  a 
veritable  outcry  from  all  other  quarters.  Petty  courses  in  "agri- 
culture" have  been  offered,  but  a  far  better  response  than  that  is 
required.  Entirely  reformed  programs  of  school  studies,  vitally 
organized  for  their  purpose,  are  demanded  for  our  vast  expanses 
of  rural  life.  Such  programs  should  be  provided  by  thinkers  of 
large  ability  and  ripe  experience,  and  the  normal  schools  should 
then  prepare  legions  of  teachers  to  make  the  new  order  of  rural 
schools  a  beneficent  reality.  The  existing  conditions  in  every  field 
call  for  earnest  and  unselfish  efforts  to  establish  an  effective  corre- 
lation that  will  make  the  best  use  of  all  resources. 

To  meet  the  needs  and  the  demands  successfully,  more  than 
internal  arrangements  for  improved  work  in  the  normal  schools 
and  universities  will  be  necessary.  The  enterprise  is  so  enormous 
and  so  complex  that  the  local  authorities  in  charge  of  public 
school  systems,  and  States  through  their  legislatures  must  co- 
operate with  the  institutions  preparing  the  teachers.  On  the  part 
of  the  local  school  systems,  organization  and  administration  must 
be  reformed  upon  sound  principles,  to  the  end  that  the  best 
available  teachers  shall  be  elected  and  retained.  There  are  (and 
there  will  be  an  increasing  number  of  them)  men  and  women 
who  will  not  scramble  for  such  positions,  but  who  could  fill  them 
capably.  Local  governing  boards  must  act  within  their  proper 


30  PREPARATION   OF   TEACHERS 

sphere.  The  necessan^  authority  must  be  conferred  upon  super- 
intendents and  the  corresponding  responsibility  be  imposed.  If 
the  superintendent  do.'s  not  meet  his  responsibility  faithfully  and 
successfully,  he  shouM  be  removed,  but  the  board  should  never 
assume  his  function  of  administration.  On  the  part  of  the  state 
legislatures,  the  essential  need  is  for  laws  providing  adequate  sup- 
port without  special  appropriations, — except  for  some  large,  oc- 
casional need,  such  as  grounds  or  buildings.  Beyond  this,  the 
Wisconsin  law,  quoted  above,  represents  the  only  other  legislative 
co-operation  that  is  needed  when  it  is  also  timely. 

This  nation  has  stoked  almost  its  existence  on  public  educa- 
tion. The  following  words  of  Commissioner  Draper  are  not  ex- 
aggerated :  "The  great  aim  of  the  public  school  system  is  to  hold 
us  together,  to  secure  the  safety  of  a  wide-open  suffrage,  and  to 
assure  the  progress  of  the  whole  population.  The  public  school 
system  is  our  protection.  In  the  light  of  the  world's  experience 
our  experiment  in  government  is  a  vast  undertaking.  History 
does  not  record  a  similar  experiment  which  has  been  permanently 
successful.  The  public  school  system  is  the  one  institution  which 
is  more  completely  representative  of  the  American  plan,  spirit, 
and  purpose  than  any  other.  It  can  continue  to  be  the  instrument 
of  our  security  and  the  star  of  our  hope  only  so  long  as  it  holds 
the  interest  and  confidence  of  all  the  people  by  assuring  the  rights 
of  every  one  to  the  best  teaching."  As  for  the  institutions  of 
higher  education,  they  are  as  indispensable  for  the  preparation  of 
teachers,  as  for  many  other  fundamentally  necessary  services. 

This  vast  question  can  not  be  treated  here  in  any  detail.  The 
suggestions  that  are  offered  must  be  concluded  by  quoting  a  pas- 
sage from  an  address  by  President  W.  L.  Bryan  of  Indiana  Uni- 
versity on  the  preparation  of  teachers  for  the  high  schools: 

"The  high  school  has  been  called  the  people's  college.  In  the  Ameri- 
can high  school  nearly  the  whole  range  of  learning  and  many  of  the 
arts  and  handicrafts  are  represented.  Here  society  sets  for  the  young 
people  tasks  of  many  sorts  which  should  lead  them  toward  society  at 


TEACHERS   OF   HIGH    SCHOOLS  31 

its  best.  The  tasks,  the  standards,  the  spirit  in  every  department  of 
the  high  school  should  be  such  as  shall  stand  approved  in  the  judgment 
of  those  men  who  represent  the  several  departments  of  art  and  of  learning 
at  their  best.  Second-best  standards  and  spirit  in  a  school  are  a  calam- 
ity. They  mistrain.  They  build  up  within  the  mind  of  the  youth,  bar- 
riers of  misinformation,  and  of  incorrect  habits.  A  generation  of  high 
school  teachers,  educated  in  second-rate  schools  and  seldom  in  touch  with 
productive  scholars,  means  a  high  school  insulated  from  the  upper  cur- 
rents of  civilized  life.  It  is  not  enough  that  high  school  teachers  should 
be  taught  respectably  upon  a  collegiate  level.  They  require  the  quick- 
ening effect  of  daily  life  with  men  who  are  themselves  scholars,  who  know 
the  inner  meaning  and  spirit  of  learning  as  it  can  be  known  only  by 
those  who  are  productive  men. 

"Whatever  the  other  schools  may  do  in  this  matter,  it  is  obvious  that 
part  of  the  work  must  rest  with  the  universities.  This  proposition 
scarcely  requires  discussion.  It  would  be  the  last  degree  of  absurdity 
to  establish  universities,  each  with  its  group  of  masters,  and  then  by 
some  legerdemain  of  legislation  to  provide  that  these  masters  shall  not 
through  their  students  become  the  teachers  of  the  whole  people. 

"The  universities  must  provide  adequately, — as  they  have  seldom  done 
in  the  past, — for  the  professional  training  of  high  school  teachers. 
There  are  university  men  who  fail  to  realize  this  necessity, — to  whom  it 
seems  that  a  university  training  in  the  subject  to  be  taught  is  sufficient, 
and  that  so-called  professional  training  is  for  the  most  part  a  deceptive 
hocus-pocus.  This  view  is  supported  by  the  fact  that  much  of  the  peda- 
gogy disseminated  is  hocus-pocus,  having  the  appearance  but  not  the 
reality  of  sound  learning,  or  in  other  cases  an  array  of  generalities  and 
truisms  barren  of  practical  utility. 

"If,  however,  a  university  man  of  practical  intelligence  will  spend 
some  time  in  visiting  high  schools,  he  will  presently  be  led  to  see  that 
a  knowledge  of  his  subject  is  by  no  means  a  sufficient  preparation  for 
teaching  it  satisfactorily  in  a  high  school.  He  can  not  avoid  seeing  in 
some  cases  that  the  work  is  very  largely  a  failure,  that  the  students 
are  baffled,  out-of-heart, — ready  at  the  first  opportunity  to  leave  school 
altogether.  The  more  one  is  obliged  to  face  this  difficulty,  the  greater 
it  appears  and  the  harder  its  solution  seems  to  be.  The  university  pro- 
fessor who  has  given  no  attention  to  secondary  education  is  not  an 
adequate  adviser.  How  a  high  school  boy  should  be  led  toward  and  into 
his  field  of  learning  is  a  problem  which  he  can  not  answer  ex  tempore. 
The  professor  of  education,  with  whatever  equipment  of  learning  in  the 


32  SCHOOLS    FOR    DEFECTIVES 

principles  of  education,  but  who  is  unacquainted  with  the  substance  and 
spirit  of  the  subject  to  be  taught,  is  likewise  an  inadequate  adviser. 
He  knows  very  vaguely  the  end  and  how  can  he  know  the  way?  In 
point  of  fact  the  teaching  of  a  high  school  subject  presents  a  problem 
which  must  be  solved  by  men  who  are  masters  of  that  subject  and  who 
then  devote  themselves  to  finding  out  how  to  deal  with  it  in  a  high 
school.  I  venture  to  say  here  that  the  study  of  such  a  problem  may  be 
original  and  productive  work  as  truly  as  any  other  research,  and  may  be 
a  piece  of  first-rate  practical  statesmanship.  If  one  can  make  sound 
learning  of  any  kind  do  its  proper  work  with  a  larger  percentage  of 
boys,  he  is  conserving  the  most  valuable  assets  of  society." 

State  Schools  for  Defectives 

There  is  a  fundamental  difference  between  higher  educational 
institutions,  and  schools  for  defectives,  or  charitable  and  penal  in- 
stitutions. The  latter  are  mentioned  in  this  discussion  only  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  former.  The  institutions  of  higher 
education  are  the  best  investment  of  society  for  the  conservation 
and  utilization  of  its  most  valuable  product.  Nothing  is  of  greater 
importance  to  society  than  the  right  development  of  the  potential 
powers  of  the  best  and  ablest  of  its  young  men  and  women.  The 
expenditure  for  guarding  defectives  is,  aside  from  its  charity,  a 
protective  measure  for  avoiding  worse  loss  and  damage.  Compe- 
tent opinion  is  unanimous,  that  "the  government  of  the  two  classes 
of  institutions  is  absolutely  antithetical."  The  government  of  sev- 
eral charitable  or  several  penal  institutions  by  one  board  of  con- 
trol, has  proved  successful  in  several  States.  Of  course,  institu- 
tions thus  segregated  for  governmental  control  should  never  be  of 
disparate  kinds.  For  instance  all  state  asylums  for  the  insane 
might  be  properly  governed  by  one  board,  or  all  penitentiaries  by 
another;  but  a  school  for  the  blind  should  never  be  so  combined 
with  orphan  asylums,  or  either  with  a  reformatory  school. 


V.     VOLUNTARY  CO-OPERATION 

Voluntary  consultation  between  the  administrative  heads  of  a 
State's  institutions  of  higher  education  should  be  frequent,  and  so 
thorough  that  each  is  always  apprised  of  the  work  and  plans  of 
all.     On  occasions,  a  plain  necessity  for  voluntary  agreement  be- 
tween the  governing  boards  arises.     The  present  juncture  of  pub- 
lic affairs  in  Texas  marks  a  signal  occasion,  in  which  there  is  ex- 
traordinary and  paramount  need  for  deliberate  and  magnanimous 
co-operation.     The   situation   demands  high   intelligence,   correct 
knowledge,   energetic  courage,   and   unselfish  harmony.     It   is   a 
fateful  crisis  for  the  educational  development  of  Texas.     A  con- 
stitutional   amendment,    which   the   legislature  might   follow   by 
either  wise  or  unwise  reorganization  of  all  governing  boards,  will 
probably  be  adopted  at  an  approaching  election.    Democratic  plat- 
form demands  call  for  various  important  measures — among  them 
a   just  and  equitable  division  of  endowment  funds  between  the 
university  and  agricultural  college.     A  well  sustained  movement 
will  endeavor  to  secure  a  state  tax  adequate  to  the  regular  sup- 
port of  the  institutions  and  definitely   apportioned  by  the   law 
establishing  it.    These  and  other  matters  will  be  precipitated  into 
a  confused  wrangle  before  a  legislature  distracted  by  a  multitude 
of  other  affairs,  unless  the  governing  boards  unite  in  advocating 
a  clear  and  convincing  proposal  for  each  important  measure. 

Preceding  chapters  have  presented  the  fundamental  principles 
respecting  the  constitution  of  governing  boards,  illustrated  by  a 
summary  of  pertinent  experience. 

If  the  platform  demand  for  "the  complete  divorcement  of  the 
University  and  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,"  and  for  "a. 
just  and  equitable  division"  of  their  joint  endowment,  is  to  re- 
ceive legislative  attention,  disastrous  consequences  might  follow  a 
report  by  the  governing  boards  of  their  inability  to  agree  upon  a 


34  VOLUNTARY   CO-OPERATION 

division.  Surely  they  have  more  knowledge  of  both  historical  and 
present  conditions,  and  more  time  for  discussion  and  deliberation 
than  the  legislature.  Opinions  may  differ  as  to  what  would  be 
"a  just  and  equitable  division,"  but,  in  a  situation  where  some 
decision  is  required,  a  joint  session  of  the  two  boards  ought  to  be 
the  best  arbiter  between  conflicting  views  or  desires.  If  the  two 
institutions  were  one  state  university, — as  is  the  case  in  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota,  Illinois,  Nebraska,  Missouri,  California, — the  endow- 
ment by  the  State  of  Texas  and  the  endowment  received  from  the 
United  States  would  be  administered  as  one  fund.  In  order  to 
divide  endowment  resources  for  completely  separated  administra- 
tions, it  is  simply  necessary  to  agree  upon  a  ratio  of  partition- 
ment.  To  do  that  would  not  be  as  difficult  as  it  may  seem  to 
some  jealous  hearts  who  have  not  yet  faced  the  question  intellectu- 
ally. The  productive  endowment  yielded  for  the  year  1910-11, 
from  investments  in  bonds  and  from  leases  of  land  received  from 
the  State  $165,419,  and  from  the  U.  S.  Government  $63,750,  mak- 
ing a  total  of  $229,169.  For  the  same  year  the  A.  &  M.  College 
received  thereof  $71,984,  which  is  $4,406  less  than  one-third,  and 
$14,692  more  than  one-fourth.  So  far  as  current  income  from 
endowment  is  concerned,  it  might  be  easy  to  agree  to  one- third 
for  the  agricultural  college.  The  partitionment  of  land,  much  of 
it  never  yet  productive  of  revenue,  is  a  more  difficult  question ;  but 
the  governing  boards  ought  to  reach  an  amicable  agreement  by 
nmtual  concessions.  They  are  the  most  competent  agency  for  the 
proper  accomplishment  of  that  task  of  statesmanship,  if  they  will 
rise  to  the  occasion. 

The  Necessary  Tax 

A  measure  of  vital  importance  ought  to  be  framed  to  secure  a 
state  tax  for  the  regular  support  of  the  three  state  institutions  of 
higher  education  and  the  four  state  normal  schools.  Some  of  the 
main  benefits  of  such  a  measure  would  be  lost  if  the  law  establish- 
ing the  tax  did  not  apportion  the  proceeds  in  three  fixed  parts  to 
the  three  higher  institutions,  and  a  distinct  part  for  the  support  of 


NECESSARY   TAX  35 

the  four  state  normal  schools.  The  latter  ought  to  be  adminis- 
tered as  one  fund  by  the  State  Normal  School  Board  of  Regents, 
according  to  the  varying  needs  of  the  respective  normal  schools. 

The  problem  thus  presented  can  not  be  properly  solved  unless 
the  four  governing  boards  concerned  accept  some  well  deliberated 
plan,  formulated  in  a  carefully  prepared  bill,  and  unite  in  har- 
monious support  of  that  bill.  Or,  if  it  be  decided  that  an  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  is  necessary,  a  corresponding  joint  reso- 
lution to  submit  the  constitutional  amendment  should  be  prepared 
and  supported. 

The  total  amount  that  must  be  supplied  from  the  revenues  of 
the  State  in  order  that  Texas  may  take  a  place  among  the  States 
that,  have  undertaken  to  secure  efficient  services  from  their  insti- 
tutions of  higher  education,  has  been  reliably  ascertained  from  a 
study  of  the  financial  basis  of  such  institutions  in  all  of  those 
States.*  It  is  also  shown  in  that  study  that  the  proceeds  of  a 
tax  of  eight-tenths  of  a  mill,  or  8  cents  on  $100,  on  the  assess- 
ment of  1911  for  Texas,  would  not  fall  far  short  of  the  requisite 
sum — $2,000,000.  Such  a  tax,  with  wise  administration,  would 
enable  the  State  of  Texas  to  secure  the  present  average  services 
enjoyed  in  the  other  States. 

There  may  be  many  Texans  who  would  not  be  permanently 
satisfied  by  securing  only  average  educational  and  scientific  services 
from  their  institutions;  but  it  would  be  prudent  to  postpone  any 
undertaking  looking  toward  leadership,  until  appropriate  meas- 
ures for  so  high  an  enterprise  can  be  adopted  in  the  light  of  ex- 
perience with  an  average  status. 

The  rate  8  cents  on  $100,  if  Texas  candidly  proposes  to  attend 
to  the  business  of  securing  efficient  services  from  its  state  insti- 
tutions of  higher  education,  will  seem  high  only  to  those  not  in- 
formed of  the  actual  practice  in  other  States.  The  average  of 
the  States  considered  in  the  study  referred  to  is  6  cents  (without 


*"A  Study  of  the  Financial  Basis  of  the  State  Universities  and  Agri- 
cultural Colleges  in  Fourteen  States,"  issued  by  the  Organization  for  the 
Enlargement  by  the  State  of  Texas  of  its  Institutions  of  Higher  Education. 


36  NECESSARY   TAX 

allowance  for  cost  of  collection),  and  that  has  already  been  raised 
by  the  recently  established  10-cents  tax  for  the  University  of 
Illinois.  The  reader  is  also  reminded  again  that  in  California, 
Illinois,  and  Ohio  great  universities  were  excluded  from  consid- 
eration whose  resources  exceed  the  support  provided  for  state  uni- 
versities. The  co-operation  of  the  people  to  secure  for  themselves 
the  services  of  a  comprehensive  and  efficient  university,  requires*  in 
Wisconsin  8£  cents,  in  Minnesota  8|  cents,  in  Michigan  6£  cents, 
in  Iowa  7  cents,  in  Colorado  7£  cents,  without  allowance  for  cost 
of  collection.  These  being  the  States  of  the  whole  list  with  which 
Texas  would  be  most  justly  and  most  willingly  compared,  the  8 
cents  suggested  for  Texas  should  not  startle  anybody. 

One  of  the  great  advantages  of  an  established  tax  for  educa- 
tional institutions  is  the  fact  that  the  increase  of  property  value 
keeps  pace,  at  the  same  tax  rate,  with  the  increase  of  students  and 
with  the  increasing  needs  of  a  growing  population  for  many  direct 
public  services. 

The  addition  of  one  cent  for  the  normal  schools  would  yield 
at  the  outset  about  $250,000  for  those  four  schools — an  average 
of  $62,500  a  year  for  each  State  Normal  School.  Under  the  cur- 
rent appropriations  by  the  legislature  for  the  two  years  ending 
August  31,  1913,  each  normal  school  receives  on  the  average 
$58,710  a  year.  If  the  standards  of  those  schools  are  to  be  raised 
and  their  forces  strengthened,  it  will  be  necessary  to  add  more 
than  one  cent  for  the  normal  schools,  to  the  eight  cents  for  the 
three  higher  institutions.  The  addition  of  two  cents  for  the  nor- 
mal schools  would  yield  $500,000,  or  an  average  of  $125,000  a 
year  for  each  of  those  schools. 

A  tax  of  one  mill  (10  cents  on  $100)  is  the  levy  necessary  to 
put  and  keep  all  the  institutions  referred  to  on  a  basis  of  average 
efficiency.  If  the  people  of  Texas  desire  to  enlarge  and  strengthen 


*A11  tax  rates  mentioned  have  been  reduced  to  the  same  basis  of  assess- 
ment valuations,  according  to  estimates  by  state  tax  commissions,  comp- 
trollers, etc. 


APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE    TAX  37 

their  educational  institutions,  so  as  to  secure  for  themselves  such 
services  as  are  enjoyed  in  the  States  whose  social  and  industrial 
interests  are  now  profiting  hy  those  advantages,  they  must  un- 
doubtedly expend  at  least  the  amount  here  indicated. 

Apportionment  of  the  Proposed  Tax. 

The  obligation  upon  the  governing  boards  to  agree  to  a  fixed 
partitionment  of  the  tax,  is  peremptory.  There  is  no  other  way 
to  avoid  annual  struggles  that  are  wretchedly  injurious.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  vital  mistake  could  be  made  in  fixing  the  division. 
Inasmuch  as  the  total  amount  is  the  minimum  sufficient  to  accom- 
plish its  purpose,  it  is  certain  that  no  division  would  apportion 
to  any  one  of  the  three  institutions  more  than  it  could  use  to  the 
public  advantage.  If  to  any  one  should  be  allotted  a  portion  that 
proved  insufficient  for  enterprises  which  the  legislature  desired  to  be 
continued  or  developed,  an  additional  appropriation  would  be  made 
for  that  institution.  It  is  certain  that  every  institution  will  from 
time  to  time  have  to  present  some  special  need  to  the  legislature. 
The  tax  proposed  would  provide  for  ordinary  expenditures  for  build- 
ing, but  times  must  come  when  some  large  necessity  for  additional 
ground,  or  for  some  extraordinary  building,  would  require  re- 
course to  the  legislature.  Such  is  the  proper  theory  of  a  tax  for 
regular  maintenance  and  support.  The  legislature  ought  to  retain 
a  regulative  power,  to  be  exercised  in  decisions  concerning  appro- 
priations additional  to  the  proceeds  of  an  established  tax  sufficient 
to  meet  foreseeable  necessities. 

It  would  be  rash  in  any  individual  to  suggest  any  precise  appor- 
tionment as  one  which  ought  to  be  agreed  to.  I  am  merely  argu- 
ing that  the  governing  boards  should  agree  on  some  definite  ap- 
portionment to  be  made  by  the  law  establishing  the  tax.  The  fol- 
lowing statement  of  what  a  certain  apportionment  of  a  10-cents 
tax  would  yield  each  of  the  institutions,  is  intended  simply  as  an 
example.  It  will  be  a  convenience  to  the  thoughtful  reader,  as 
either  a  point  of  rest  or  a  point  of  departure  for  his  own  judgment. 


38  APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE  TAX 

A  ID-cents  tax  for  the  maintenance  and  development  of  the 
State's  educational  institutions  would  yield  next  year  about  $2,- 
500,000.  The  10  cents  must  be  apportioned  somehow;  for  example 

University   of   Texas <H  cents $1,125,000 

A.  &  M.  Col.,  with  Prairie  View  Inst.  for  negroes. 3     cents 750,000 

Girls'    College    i  cent 125,000 

Four  State  Normal  Schools  ($125,000  each) 2     cents 500,000 

Any  definite  apportionment  of  the  tax  would  be  better  than  an 
apportionment  dependent  upon  contingent  factors.  There  is  no 
factor,  or  combination  of  factors,  upon  which  succeeding  appor- 
tionments could  be  made  to  depend  without  entailing  injurious 
consequences.  Temptations  to  swell  such  factors  artificially  would 
lead  to  wa&teful  or  degrading  measures.  Nothing  could  be  more 
ill  advised,  for  instance,  than  an  apportionment  contingently  de- 
pendent upon  the  number  of  students.  Such  a  law  would  in- 
evitably tend  J;o  corrupt  the  administration  of  all  the  institutions. 
The  number  of  students  is  by  no  means  the  controlling  factor  of 
proper  cost.  Its  bearing  may  coincide  with  that  of  other  needs, 
but  a  great  many  services  to  the  State  and  to  individual  citizens, 
besides  teaching  students  for  the  regular  term  of  enrollment,  are 
to  be  taken  into  account.  Every  factor,  however,  has  its  due 
weight,  and  it  will  assist  to  impartial  conclusions  to  compare  the 
apportionment,  here  stated  for  purposes  of  illustration,  with  the 
number  of  students  for  the  regular  term  of  enrollment  a  year  ago, 
excluding  summer  schools  and  correspondence  students.  Of  the 
total  number  of  students  for  regular  term  of  enrollment,  the  Uni- 
versity had  60  per  cent,  the  A.  and  M.  College  32  per  cent,  and 
the  Girls'  College,  8  per  cent.*  If  4-J  cents  were  assigned  to  the 
University,  3  cents  to  the  A.  and  M.  College,  and  ^  cent  to  the 
Girls'  College,  the  University  would  receive  56^  per  cent  of  the 
total  8  cents  for  the  three  higher  institutions,  the  A.  and  M.  Col- 
lege 37^  per  cent,  and  the  Girls'  College  6|  per  cent. 


*See  Table  II  of  "A  Study  of  the  Financial  Basis  of  the  State  Uni- 
versities and  Agricultural  Colleges  in  Fourteen  States." 


APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE   TAX  39 

University    60%  of  students . .  . .  4$  cents  would  be  56i  %  of  8  cents 

A.  &  M.  College.  .32%  of  students. .  .  .3     cents  would  be  37i%  of  8  cents 
Girls'  College 8%  of  students i  cent   would  be     6i%   of  8  cents 

No  account  was  taken  of  the  Prairie  View  Institute  for  negroes 
(which  is  governed  by  and  was  charged  to  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  A.  and  M.  College)  in  this  comparison  respecting  number 
of  students;  but  the  apportionment  used  for  illustration  still 
plainly  gives  considerable  advantage  on  that  score  to  the  A.  and  M. 
College.  There  are  other  considerations  of  greater  weight. 

The  University  and  the  A.  and  M.  College  have  many  spheres 
of  work  which  are  more  costly  than  any  that  should  ever  be  under- 
taken by  the  Girls'  College.  Moreover,  it  is  such  public  services 
by  the  University  and  the  A.  and  M.  College  that  the  State  of 
Texas  especially  needs  to  increase  in  number,  to  enlarge  in  ex- 
tent, and  to  improve  in  quality.  The  tentative  distribution,  here 
set  forth  merely  as  a  suggestion,  might  be  adjusted  to  assign  more 
to  the  University  and  less  to  the  A.  and  M.  College,  but  hardly 
in  the  reverse  way.  Possibly  it  might  be  deemed  proper  to  make 
the  allotment  to  the  Girls'  College  f  cent,  and  the  allotment  to 
the  A.  and  M.  College  2f  cents.  It  is  for  the  three  governing 
boards  to  determine  their  advice  to  the  legislature  in  an  impartial, 
statesmanlike  way,  looking  toward  an  inspiring  future.  The  por- 
tions must  be  scant  for  all.  Need  for  buildings  might  make  one 
of  them  seem,  at  first,  disproportionately  inadequate;  but  the  ap- 
portionment ought  to  be  fixed  mainly  on  the  more  steady  factors 
of  comparative  needs.  Future  legislatures  should  be  relied  upon 
to  make  additional  appropriations  when  plainly  necessary  for  new 
buildings. 

The  very  name  and  nature  of  each  of  the  three  institutions 
vaguely  outline  the  future  developments  that  are  for  it  most  de- 
sirable. Those  developments  should  be  taken  as  the  chief  criteria 
for  a  just  apportionment  of  the  tax. 


40  APPORTIONMENT   OP   THE   TAX 

The  college  for  girls  has  a  comparatively  restricted  sphere  of 
work.  The  number  of  its  students  will  -remain  comparatively 
small, — if  only  for  the  reason  that  so  many  girls  and  young 
women  will  always  attend  the  normal  schools  and  the  university. 
It  is  not  probable  that  the  ratio  of  the  number  of  students  in  the 
girls'  college  to  the  number  of  students  in  the  university  will 
ever  be  very  different  from  that  of  the  portions  of  the  tax  assigned 
to  them  in  the  apportionment  we  have  used  for  illustration.  Costly 
departments  of  postgraduate  instruction  and  research  need  not 
and  should  not  be  maintained  there.  In  short,  the  proper  cost 
of  "a  university  of  the  first  class"  is  more  than  ten  times  the  cost 
of  an  excellent  college  for  girls.  The  apportionment  referred  to 
makes  the  ratio  nine  to  one;  but  the  addition  of  the  university's 
income  from  endowment  would  keep  its  resources  about  ten  times 
the  resources  of  the  girls'  college.  These  are  simply  business 
facts.  Size  does  not  measure  importance,  nor  is  preciousness  to 
be  measured  by  cost.  The  present  writer  certainly  has  no  lack 
of  appreciation  of  the  State's  college  for  girls  and  young  women. 
He  has  served  three  terms  as  a  member  of  its  board  of  regents, 
and  long  before  he  began  that  service,  in  an  address  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  institution  on  September  23,  1903,  he  spoke  the  follow- 
ing words,  which  are  quoted  here  because  they  set  forth  the  idea 
of  far-reaching  influence  independent  of  local  magnitude. 

"The  new  departure  whose  inauguration  we  witness  today  constitutes 
a  high  tribute  to  the  statesmanship  which  has  given  this  answer  to  the 
clamor  of  genuine  but  more  or  less  blind  popular  demands.  What  it  shall 
lead  to  would  be  too  much  for  any  man  to  say  today,  but  it  seems  to  me 
a  pregnant  event  from  which  great  and  far-reaching  consequences  may 
follow.  .  .  .  Its  immediate  work,  the  wise  training  of  a  few  hun- 
dred girls  every  year,  is  a  most  useful  enterprise;  but  the  scope  of 
ite  effects  may  reach  beyond  such  limits,  moulding  affairs  which  con- 
cern hundreds  of  thousands  instead  of  hundreds.  The  time  may  not 
be  far  distant  when  every  high  school  in  Texas  shall  look  to  this  new 
school  for  girls  as  the  source  of  fundamental  changes  in  its  work  and 
ideals,  by  which  courses  of  study  now  offered  without  discrimination  to 


APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE    TAX  41 

boys  and  girls  will  be  differentiated  in  recognition  of  facts  of  nature  and 
human  nature  so  long  and  so  crudely  ignored.  Our  larger  cities  may 
find  themselves  led  to  dividing  their  high  schools, — one  for  boys  and  one 
for  girls,  with  suitably  differentiated  courses  of  study  and  methods  of 
management.  Who  can  tell?  Reasons  are  not  wanting  to  fear  that  the 
uncompromising  application  of  the  co-educational  plan  is  working  dam- 
age. It  may  be  that  what  is  proper  for  elementary  schools  and  later  for 
some  professional  schools  and  for  postgraduate  studies,  is  unfit  for  the 
secondary  and  collegiate  stages.  These  questions  are  now  engaging  atten- 
tion throughout  our  common  country;  and  the  decision  to  which  this  State 
shall  come  depends  largely  upon  the  experience  and  reputation  to  be 
gained  here  in  this  institution,  the  first  to  be  fundamentally  differentiated 
upon  grounds  of  sex  that  the  State  of  Texas  has  established." 

That  high  presentiment  of  the  germinal  meaning  and  potential 
force  of  the  institution,  I  hold  today — confirmed  by  actual  events 
in  which  its  realization  has  already  been  begun.  But  such  an 
estimate  of  the  value  of  possible  results  has  no  bearing  on  the 
financial  question  under  consideration.  The  necessary  cost  of  the 
proper  instruction  and  other  activities  needed  to  accomplish  the 
main  purposes  of  each  institution,  should  determine  the  apportion- 
ment of  a  tax  for  their  support.  The  value  to  individuals  and  to 
the-  State  of  all  resulting  effects  is  a  matter  that  takes  care  of 
itself.  For  example,  the  fact  that  the  teaching  of  law  is  less  ex- 
pensive than  the  teaching  of  medicine  does  not  imply  any  com- 
parison between  the  value  of  law  and  the  value  of  medicine.  Any 
discussion  of  the  comparative  value  of  law  and  medicine  would 
be  useless — probably  absurd.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  both  are 
necessary,  and  that  each  ought  to  be  taught  well,  or  not  taught  at 
all.  Knowledge  and  appreciation  of  domestic  economy  and  arts 
on  the  part  of  women  is  of  immense  value  to  themselves  and  to 
society;  but  it  is  one  of  the  chief  services  of  the  College  of  Indus- 
trial Arts  for  Women  that  its  ideals  and  work  should  lead  all  other 
institutions  that  undertake  the  education  of  girls,  to  offer  some 
of  the  courses  of  instruction  for  which  it  has  developed  apprecia- 
tion and  should  maintain  standards.  The  university  and  the 


42  APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE    TAX 

normal  schools  have  already  begun  to  follow  its  lead  in  this  re- 
spect, and  domestic  arts  courses  have  been  established  in  many 
high  schools.  The  largest  result  of  the  work  that  should  be  done 
by  the  College  of  Industrial  Arts  for  Women  will  appear  in  due 
time  through  work  done  and  paid  for  by  other  colleges  and  by 
normal  schools  and  by  a  thousand  high  schools,  and  through  effects 
of  the  latter  in  a  million  homes.  Of  course,  the  place  and  need 
for  the  college  will  continue  to  expand.  It  is  the  only  non-coedu- 
cational college  for  girls  supported  by  the  State.  Many  parents 
will  prefer  to  send  daughters  there,  and  it  should  be  the  best  collegi- 
ate institution  for  many  girls.  Inspiration  and  leadership  in  its 
sphere  of  work  and  ideas  must  never  fail.  It  is  a  permanent  and 
should  be  a  growing  part  of  the  State's  provision  for  higher  edu- 
cation. 

The  urgent  need  of  the  State  of  Texas  for  a  strong  and  active 
college  of  agriculture  is  too  apparent  to  call  for  argument.  The 
development  at  the  A.  and  M.  College  of  a  comprehensive  school  of 
technology  would,  also,  be  of  great  service  to  the  State;  but  there 
is  no  hope  of  means  sufficient  to  reach  good  standards,  in  the  near 
future,  in  all  branches.  It  would  seem  to  be  an  appropriate  policy 
to  strengthen  such  of  the  present  technological  departments  as 
could  be  most  readily  raised  to  good  standards,  and  to  devote  in- 
creased resources  mainly  to  invigorating  and  enlarging  all  agricul- 
tural departments.  Perhaps  it  would  be  expedient  to  desist  from 
some  non-agricultural  undertaking  that  has  been  only  nominally 
attempted. 

There  is  certainly  one  thing  that  has  been  put  upon  the  A.  and 
M.  College  from  which  it  ought  to  be  freed,  even  if  its  resources 
were  unlimited.  At  present  the  college  is  charged  with  "the  ad- 
ministration of  the  feed  control  law."  That  matter  properly  ap- 
pertains to  an  executive  department  of  the  state  government.  It 
was  a  fundamental  mistake  to  attach  it  to  an  educational  institution. 
The  feed  control  law  cannot  be  administered  without  alert  prosecu- 


APPORTIONMENT    OF   THE   TAX  43 

tion  of  willful  violators  of  the  law.  Of  course,  the  main  object 
should  be  to  prevent  infractions  of  the  law.  This  great  State,  with 
its  population  of  four  millions,  needs  a  vigorous  administration  of 
wise  laws  for  the  protection  of  the  people  against  injurious  or  frau- 
dulent substances  in  food,  drugs,  and  feed  for  animals.  Such  pro- 
tection is  as  essential  to  good  government  as  the  prevention  of 
false  weights  and  measures  or  counterfeited  money.  But  all  these 
are  functions  that  can  be  rightly  discharged  only  by  the  executive 
department  of  the  government.  No  educational  institution  should 
be  required  to  administer  any  general  law;  and  any  such  institu- 
tion, having  thoughtlessly  sought  or  acquiesced  in  such  an  in- 
compatibility, should  clear  itself  of  the  impropriety  as  promptly 
as  possible.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  next  Legislature  will  es- 
tablish in  the  executive  branch  of  the  government  a  pure  food 
and  drug  department  to  have  charge  of  all  germane  affairs.  It 
should  be  equipped  for  full  efficiency  in  its  double  function — the 
scientific  ascertainment  of  the  facts,  and  the  enforcement  of  the 
law.  The  commissioner  in  charge  of  such  a  department  should 
be  appointed  by  the  governor,  and  should  combine  in  him  self 
the  scientific  attainments  needed  to  organize  and  control  a  staff 
of  chemists,  bacteriologists,  etc.,  and  the  knowledge  and  the  cour- 
age necessary  to  prosecute  successfully  willful  violators  of  the  law. 
The  immense  and  varied  agricultural  interests  of  Texas  present 
such  need  and  opportunity  for  scientific  services,  that  the  problem 
of  making  the  best  use  of  narrow  means  must  be  difficult.  It 
would  repay  the  people  of  Texas  a  hundred-fold,  for  example,  to 
spend  a  million  -dollars  a  year  on  agricultural  experiment  and  dis- 
semination work  alone.  Hitherto  it  has  been  solely  through  the 
co-operation  of  the  federal  government  that  anything  has  been 
provided  for  such  services.  The  people  of  Texas  have  as  yet  done 
nothing  for  themselves  in  this  respect.  In  one  of  its  many  ad- 
mirable *  editorials  upon  the  advancement  of  agriculture,  "Farm 
and  Kanch"  (issue  of  June  15,  1912)  gives  an  account  of  the 
earnest  endeavors  of  the  A.  and  M.  College  and  of  its  director  of 


44  APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE   TAT 

experiment  stations,  to  improve  the  experiment  station  service. 
But  the  editorial  writer  points  out  the  meager  support,  and  asks, 
"how  could  the  people  expect  to  get  results  of  real  benefit?"  He 
declares  that,  "since  the  passage  of  the  Hatch*  act,  the  State  of 
Texas  has  not  appropriated  one  cent  for  maintenance  of  the  ex- 
periment station  at  College  Station."  The  article  includes  a  state- 
ment of  the  director,  from  which  the  following  striking  passages 
are  quoted: 

"When  I  arrived  here  August  15,  1911,  I  found  only  four  divisions 
of  the  station  conducting  any  lines  of  original  research,  .  .  .  and 
none  of  these,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  division  of  chemistry, 
had  worlc  of  sufficient  volume  to  be  of  more  effect  upon  the  great  field 
of  Texas  agriculture  than  the  thumping  of  a  rubble  out  into  a  mill  pond. 
In  fact,  the  divisions  of  the  station  which  ought  to  be  doing  the  great- 
est amount  of  work  for  the  Texas  farmer  were  the  least  developed  of 
all.  .  .  .  While  it  is  not  my  aim  to  weaken  any  of  the  stronger 
divisions  ( as  they  themselves  should  be  strengthed ) ,  I  shall  devote  the 
greater  part  of  my  energies  for  the  first  few  years,  at  least,  to  strength- 
ening and  amplifying  the  work  of  the  more  fundamental  divisions.  .  .  . 
We  should  have  a  specialist  devoting  his  time  to  the  corn  industry  of 
the  state,  but  have  no  funds  with  which  to  employ  him.  We  should  have 
a  legume  specialist  and  a  sorghum  specialist  also.  In  planning  the  work 
in  agronomy  we  have  projected  every  line  of  investigation  that  our  funds 
will  permit  us  to  conduct,  and  have  extended  this  work  from  the  main 
station  out  on  to  all  of  the  sub-stations  in  various  sections  of  the  state. 
In  the  future  we  shall  have  state-wide  data  in  reference  to  every  given 
crop  practice.  .  .  . 

"Experiment  stations  are  the  agencies  which  create  or  discover  new 
and  valuable  ideas  for  the  farmers.  .  .  .  All  disseminating  agencies 
are  drawing  on  some  staff  of  investigators  for  the  information  which  they 


*The  beginning  of  experiment  stations  in  the  United  States  was  the 
act  of  Congress,  called  the  Hatch  Act,  passed  in  1887,  which  estab- 
lished an  agricultural  experiment  station  as  a  department  of  every  state 
agricultural  college.  In  1906  the  Adams  act  was  passed  to  increase 
stimulation  to  the  research  urgently  needed  by  the  agricultural  interests 
of  the  entire  country.  These  were  co-operative  measures,  and  "were  not 
intended  to  constitute  the  whole  support  of  such  work.  The  people  of 
each  State  are  expected  to  do  their  part. 


APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE    TAX  45 

disseminate.  I  consider  it  shameful  that  these  agencies  in  Texas  at  the 
present  time  get  most  of  the  information  which  they  disseminate  from 
outside  sources.  .  .  . 

"Texas  is  in  every  sense  the  greatest  agricultural  state  in  the  union, 
and  yet  it  maintains  one  of  the  smallest  experiment  staffs  in  the  world." 

There  are  at  least  four  great  sections  of  Texas  characterized 
so  distinctly  by  different  agricultural  conditions  that  probably  four 
main  experiment  stations  are  needed,  each  to  be  the  center  for  sub- 
stations in  its  section.  It  might  seem,  upon  consideration,  advis- 
able and  practicable  to  maintain  a  special  school  preparatory  for 
the  agricultural  college  in  connection  with  each  of  such  main  sta- 
tions. But  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  discussion  to  attempt  to 
consider  details  of  internal  administration.  The  main  point  here 
is  that  only  by  harmonious  co-operation  will  it  be  possible  to 
secure  the  proposed  tax  for  all  the  institutions.  It  should  be  real- 
ized by  all  who  take  part  in  responsible  deliberations  concerning 
the  apportionment  of  the  tax,  that  its  proceeds  would  fall  far  short 
of  making  feasible  all  that  is  desirable.  There  must  be  selection 
and  mutual  concessions.  It  may,  indeed,  be  best,  as  has  been 
already  suggested,  to  acquire  some  experience  with  such  average 
standards  as  could  be  attained  in  the  most  essential  departments 
through  the  proposed  tax,  before  attempting  more.  It  is  probable, 
also,  that  the  taxed  wealth  of  Texas  will  grow  rapidly,  and  that 
continual  expansion  and  improvement  will  be  possible  without 
increase  of  the  rate  of  taxation. 

When  we  consider  such  a  university  as  is  needed  by  the  great 
commonwealth  of  Texas,  the  needs  for  enlargement  and  improve- 
ment of  the  present  establishment  are  bewildering.  Desirable 
measures  outrun  all  possible  resources  even  further  and  more  widely 
than  in  the  case  of  the  A.  and  M.  College.  The  greater  part  of 
the  University's  portion  of  the  proposed  tax  could  be  expended 
profitably,  for  instance,  upon  its  medical  school  alone.  Here 
again,  therefore,  there  must  be  the  necessity  for  selection.  The 


46  APPORTIONMENT   OP   THE   TAX 

chief  program  should  be  one  of  improving  to  a  high  standard  of 
usefulness  all  essential  departments  already  existing.  Many  such 
departments  are  now  merely  languishing  in  an  incipient  or  en- 
feebled condition.  Some  new  departments  should,  doubtless,  be 
added, — for  instance,  a  department  of  preventive  medicine  and 
public  hygiene  in  the  medical  school.  Or,  means  may  be  avail- 
able for  adding  some  entire  school,  such  as  a  school  of  journalism 
in  the  College  of  Arts.  The  general  principle  has  been  forcibly 
stated  by  President  Bryan  of  Indiana  University  as  follows : 

"In  some  cases,  we  have  a  university  whose  circle  of  activities  ap- 
proaches correspondence  with  the  whole  circle  of  services  which  society 
requires  from  learned  men.  Unhappily,  however,  there  is  no  university 
rich  enough  to  carry  out  with  success  so  vast  a  program.  The  rich- 
est university  is,  therefore,  in  peril  of  so  multiplying  the  lines  of  its 
work  that  all  the  lines  of  its  work  shall  be  lowered  in  quality.  It  is 
very  possible  in  this  way  for  a  university  to  so  scatter  its  resources 
that  it  can  do  nothing  at  all  of  first-rate  quality.  Whether  a  univer- 
sity be  relatively  rich  or  poor,  its  greatest  mistake,  financial  and  edu- 
cational, is  to  indulge  in  a  policy  of  expansions  which  live  by  sapping 
the  strength  from  established  lines  of  work.  .  .  .  All  forms  of  expan- 
sion come  to  the  same  thing  if  they  involve  spending  money  upon  more 
things  than  can  be  done  well. 

"The  penalties  which  fall  upon  an  institution  which  sins  greatly  in 
this  respect  are  severe.  The  library  suffers.  The  laboratories  suffer. 
Salaries  are  kept  down.  The  best  men  escape.  Those  who  remain  lose 
heart.  The  quality  of  everything  done  about  the  institution  is  lowered. 
The  final  calamity  is  that  all  this  tends  to  bring  to  and  establish  in  the 
institution  a  faculty  of  mediocre  men.  There  is  no  known  [quick]  rem- 
edy for  this  calamity.  If  the  institution  grows  suddenly  rich,  the  way 
to  progress  is  blocked  by  a  group  of  men  who  cannot  be  removed  except 
by  death,  and  whose  mediocrity  will  pervade  the  institution  for  a  gen- 
eration. It  is  my  belief  that  there  is  no  American  university  which  has 
not  suffered  more  or  less  by  expansions  which  have  affected  the  quality 
of  its  work.  It  is  certain  that  some  of  the  universities  with  small 
incomes,  in  their  effort  to  cover  every  field,  have  brought  themselves  in 
every  field  to  a  deplorable  weakness.  And  it  is  certain  that  some  among 
the  universities  with  large  incomes  have,  through  the  same  error,  grown 
large  without  having  grown  great." 


APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE    TAX  47 

As  has  been  suggested  by  a  bracketed  word  inserted  in  the 
preceding  quotation,  although  there  is  no  quick  remedy  for  the  full 
consequences  of  the  mistake  referred  to,  the  remedy  is  not  un- 
known. 'The  way  to  resume  is  to  resume/  Critics  should  not  be 
too  censorious  of  the  error  of  having  attempted  to  do  too  much. 
Good  intentions  do  not  avert  the  consequences  of  a  mistake,  but 
they  render  correction  comparatively  easy.  During  its  first  forma- 
tive period  a  state  university  may  properly  err  a  little  in  the  way 
of  adding  departments  before  means  for  their  support  are  sup- 
plied, in  order  to  attract  the  sympathetic  attention  of  the  public 
and  the  legislature.  No  such  policy,  however,  may  be  followed 
without  injury  for  thirty  years — the  period  during  which  the  Uni- 
versity of  Texas  has  been  kept  in  swaddling  clothes.  It  has  been 
zeal  to  serve  beyond  measure,  that  has  commonly  led  state  univer- 
sities to  attempt  to  do  more  than  could  be  done  well  with  the 
means  put  at  their  disposal.  When  increased  means  are  supplied 
to  a  university  that  has  been  led  into  such  error,  if  its  rulers  re- 
main blind  or  perverse  "the  last  state  of  that  man  is  worse  than 
the  first;"  but  the  way  to  progress  is  open,  if  its  rulers  will  see  it. 
The  caravan  must  move  with  some  crippled  members  and  with  some 
burdens  that  cannot  be  cast  away  incontinently,  but  the  way  lies 
open  and  straight  forward.  Some  of  the  lame  will  soon  learn  to 
walk  sturdily,  and  the  burdens  will  gradually  diminish.  Nothing 
could  be  more  unreasonable  than  to  assign  dissatisfaction  with  some 
existing  circumstance,  as  a  ground  for  refusing  to  establish  the 
only  permanent  condition  upon  which  proper  results  can  be  built. 
The  worse  anyone  thinks  of  some  present  circumstance,  the  more 
urgent  he  should  be  to  establish  a  financial  basis  for  improvement. 

Among  the  necessities  for  the  University  of  Texas  are  some 
genuine  graduate  departments.  It  is  required  by  the  organic  law 
of  the  State  that  "a  university  of  the  first  class"  shall  be  main- 
tained. As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  existing  institution  could  hardly 
be  termed  a  university  of  any  class  in  the  distinctive  meaning  of 
the  word — the  meaning  in  which  university  is  distinguished  from 


48  APPORTIONMENT   OF   THE    TAX 

college.  The  university  degrees,  as  distinguished  from  the  college 
degrees,  have  never  been  conferred,  nor  could  any  graduate  of  the 
"University  of  Texas,"  under  present  conditions,  be  candidly  ad- 
vised to  study  for  the  Ph.  D.  degree  in  this  State.  No  one  has 
ever  yet  done  so,  and  no  well-informed  man  will  ever  do  so  until 
conditions  are  changed.  A  few  years  ago  the  catalog  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Texas  began  to  announce  requirements  for  the  Ph.  D. 
degree,  and  it  has  since  continued  such  an  announcement ;  but  no 
one  has  ever  finished  the  courses,  nor  have  they  in  any  legitimate 
sense  ever  existed.  That  is  the  sort  of  thing  that  ought  never  to 
be  done  again. 

The  time  has  come  when  the  legislature  of  Texas  ought  to  de- 
cide whether  this  State  needs  a  real  university,  or  not.  If  they 
decide  that  Texas  does  not  need  a  university,  the  name  "Univer- 
sity of  Texas"  should  be  changed  to  something  like  Texas  State 
College.  If  they  decide  that  Texas  does  need  a  university,  they 
should  see  the  immediate  necessity  of  erecting  a  university  on  the 
oroad  collegiate  foundation  which  has  been  well  and  firmly  laid 
The  true  condition  was  recently  (September  28,  1912)  stated  very 
spicily  by  "Farm  and  Ranch,"  in  a  leading  article  entitled  "Be- 
ginning a  State  University":  "The  fathers  named  the  infant 
' University'  before  it  was  born,  just  as  we  name  a  baby  'Thomas 
Jefferson/  in  the  hope  that  with  the  years  it  will  grow  to  be  a 
Thomas  Jefferson  in  intellect  and  power  and  be  not  one  in  name 
only.  So  it  is  with  the  university ;  it  must  grow  to  be  one  in  reality, 
not  remain  one  in  name  only.  .  .  .  The  guardians  of  the 
future  must  feel  an  added  interest  in  it  and  give  it  additional 
care  and  subsistence.  .  .  .  There  is  today  a  greater  demand 
for  higher  education,  a  very  much  greater  demand  for  more  de- 
partments of  higher  education,  than  ever  before.  The  University 
of  Texas  should  measure  up  to  the  standing  of  Texas  in  the  sister- 
hood of  States." 

If  any  man  criticizes  harshly  any  present  fact,  let  him  under- 
stand that  its  efficient,  if  not  its  immediate  cause,  has  been  in- 


APPORTIONMENT    OF   THE   TAX  49 

adequate  and  precarious  support.  Let  him  know  that  the  average 
salary  paid  the  teaching  force  of  the  University  of  Texas  thirty 
years  ago  was  double  the  present  average  salary.  How  could  an 
intelligent  man  demand  of  the  University  of  Texas,  in  its  present 
circumstances,  the  first-class  research  and  manifold  services  to  the 
general  public  which  have  come  to  be  essential  characteristics  of 
the  modern  university?  The  youth  of  the  state  are  crowding  its 
halls  so  that  the  number  of  its  teachers  (no  one  paid  more  than 
three-fourths  as  much,  and  the  average  of  all  about  half  as  much 
as  was  paid  thirty  years  ago)  is  insufficient  to  perform  the  work 
of  undergraduate  collegiate  instruction  as  required  by  good  stand- 
ards. Modern  society  has  reached  a  stage  when  weak  or  spurious 
services  by  a  state  institution  of  higher  education  are  no  longer 
permissible.  They  are  a  snare  for  the  youth  who  are  led  to  wast- 
ing irrecoverable  time,  and  the  people  at  large  are  cheated  of  the 
general  benefits  of  genuine  and  strong  work. 

There  would  be,  of  course,  no  propriety  in  considering  the  de- 
tails of  a  future  program  for  any  one  of  the  institutions  in  the 
joint  counsels  of  the  governing  boards  of  all,  and  any  attempt  to 
dictate  internal  policies  would  be  a  most  pernicious  precedent.*  It 
is  simply  required  that  all  should  recognize  that  each  of  the  in- 
stitutions has  almost  unlimited  opportunities  for  expansion,  and 
urgent  need  for  the  strengthening  of  its  forces  for  work  already 
undertaken.  The  occasion  has  for  its  essence  the  duty  of  co-oper- 
ating, and  it  would  be  inappropriate  for  any  member  of  one  of 
the  boards  to  regard  himself  as  a  special  advocate.  The  three 
boards  are  responsible  for  harmonious  advice  to  the  legislature  for 
a  wise  apportionment  of  a  tax  for  the  support  of  the  three  insti- 
tutions. The  policy  best  for  the  State  should  be  formulated.  It 
is,  therefore,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  State's  interests  in  all 
of  its  institutions,  and  not  as  a  partisan  contestant  for  any  one  of 


*As  to  infringement  by  the  legislature  upon  the  sphere  of  administra- 
tion, see  p.  3. 


50  AN    HISTORICAL   DOCUMENT 

them,  that  their  regents  ought  to  fix  the  apportionment  of  a  perma- 
nent tax.  When  the  people  have  only  a  choice  of  electing  one  or 
several  self-constituted  office-seekers,  it  has  often  resulted,  for  in- 
stance, that  an  alderman  or  member  of  a  city  school  board  has 
shown  himself  incapable  of  conceiving  the  city's  good,  and  has 
thought  only  of  his  own  "ward/"'  But  the  people  of  Texas  have 
charged  the  governors  of  their  State  with  the  higli  duty  of  selecting 
citizens  fitted  by  character  and  intelligence  for  the  great  and  honor- 
able and  unpaid  office  of  regent  of  a  state  institution  of  higher 
education.  They  are  therefore  entitled  to  expect  that,  when  the 
occasion  demands  it,  men  so  appointed  will  pass  judgment  on  a 
large  question  in  a  magnanimous  way,  holding  in  view  the  State's 
interest.  Tactics  of  each  grabbing  for  his  own.  ward  would  be 
grossly  out  of  place  at  a  council  board  charged  with  the  duty  of 
giving  good,  advice  to  the  law-making  power  for  the  apportion- 
ment of  a  tax  for  the  educational  institutions  of  the  State. 


It  is  proper,  and  may  be  interesting,  to  recall  in  this  connection 
the  unsuccessful  attempt,  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  to  induce 
the  22nd  and  23rd  Legislatures  to  make  partial  restitution  to 
University  of  Texas  for  the  most  valuable  portion  of  its  land 
endowment  which  was  taken  from  it  (before  it  was  born*)  during 
the  war  of  secession.  If  that  violent  loss  had  not  been  suffered, 
the  State  today  would  be  at  no  charge  on  account  of  its  university ; 
and  the  University  of  Texas  would  be  the  most  richly  endowed  in- 
stitution of  learning  in  the  world.  Bills  to  make  partial  restitu- 
tion by  conveying  to  the  University  half  of  the  residue  of  public 
domain  (5,000,000  acres)  which  at  that  time  still  remained  unap- 
propriated, failed  to  pass.  Ten  years  later  the  whole  of  the  said 
residue  of  public  domain  was  added  to  the  public  school  fund.  I 
quote  some  passages  from  a  striking  statement  concerning  the  pur- 
pose of  the  said  bills,  issued  in  1892  by  the  University  regents.  It 
is  entitled :  "To  the  People  of  Texas,  An  Address  by  the  Board  of 


The  University  of  Texas  opened  its  first  session  in  September,  1883. 


AN   HISTORICAL   DOCUMENT  51 

Regents  of  University  of  Texas."  It  has  become  a  rare  document, 
but  I  possess  several  copies  given  to  me  at  the  time  by  the  actual 
author  of  the  address : 

"The  Constitution  requires  the  Legislature  'as  soon  as  practicable  [to] 
establish,  organize,  and  provide  for  the  maintenance,  support  and  direction 
of  a  University  of  the  first  class.' 

"For  the  organization  and  direction  of  the  University,  legislative  provi- 
sion has  been  made;  the  degree  in  which  the  other  part  of  this  constitu- 
tional mandate  has  been  fulfilled  may  be  seen  from  what  follows :  [Com- 
parative statistics  for  1892]. 

"These  figures  need  no  commentary.  States  far  poorer  than  Texas  with 
little  more  than  half  her  population,  appreciating  the  public  utility  of  a 
well  supported  and  well  equipped  university,  are  giving  out  of  their 
smaller  means  not  merely  relatively  but  absolutely  more  and  much  more 
than  Texas  to  this  end.  Yet  the  founders**  of  Texas,  more  clearly,  per- 
haps, than  other  men,  saw  and  insisted  upon  the  need  and  value  to  a 
commonwealth  of  an  institution  devoted  to  the  higher  learning  abundantly 
equipped  and  maintained.  They  provided  for  this  and  provided  amply  so 
firm  was  their  conviction.  If  the  State  in  grievous  times  had  not  laid 
hands  upon  what  the  builders  of  the  State  had  set  aside  for  the  Univer- 
sity; if  the  University  had  today  what  the  fathers  bestowed  upon  her  as 
a  perpetual  patrimony  (which  she  no  longer  has  through  no  fault  of  hers 
but  by  the  action  of  the  State),  so  far  from  asking  the  Legislature  for 
anything,  the  University  of  Texas  would  now  be  one  of  the  greatest  centers 
of  learning  and  one  of  the  most  richly  endowed  institutions  in  the  world. 
Texas  would  now  have  all  this  without  being  at  the  least  charge,  and  this 
source  of  prosperity  and  renown  would  be  perennial.  Youth  from  all  parts 
of  the  land  would  be  flocking  to  Texas  as  they  now  congregate  in  the  great 
Northern  institutions.  The  opportunity  which  the  Legislature  now  has  of 
ultimately  redeeming  the  lost  vantage  can  never  come  again. 

"It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  a  commonwealth  that  the  best  trained 
and  ablest  men  in  it  should  be  in  sympathy  with  its  spirit;  this  is  best 
secured  by  home  education.*  But  if  young  men  of  this  stamp,  who  are 


**0f  the  fifty-six  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  forty-six 
were  college  bred  men. 

*"Every  State  should  rear  its  own  men  in  every  stature  of  manhood,  of 
intelligence,  and  of  culture,  according  to  their  capabilities,  upon  its  own 
soil,  and  thereby  engender  and  preserve  an  intense  homogeneousness  in  the 


52  AN   HISTORICAL   DOCUMENT 

most  valuable  to  the  State,  cannot  obtain  the  best  advantages  at  home, 
they  will  necessarily  go  in  large  numbers  far  from  home  to  those  places 
where  the  best  advantages  are  to  be  had.  By  a  wise  foresight,  by  a  policy 
that  forecasts  further  than  a  couple  of  years,  the  State  of  Texas  can  rear 
an  institution  to  which  the  vast  majority  of  her  able,  ambitious  young 
men  will  be  attracted.  Not  only  will  the  benefits  accruing  to  the  Statq 
from  her  sons  receiving  the  best  education  of  the  day  within  its  borders 
be  gained,  but  the  large  annual  tribute  which  passes  out  of  the  State  into 
other  States,  by  reason  of  Texans  going  for  higher  education  to  the  better 
equipped  and  more  liberally  maintained  institutions,  will  dwindle  into 
insignificant  proportions.  If  the  State  does  not  maintain  such  an  institu- 
tion, with  the  growth  of  wealth  and  population,  this  sum,  already  great, 
which  is  lost  to  the  State,  must  increase  largely  with  every  year.  In  1884 
it  was  estimated  that  half  a  million  dollars  was  annually  spent  out  of 
the  State  by  Texan  students.  ...  If  the  State  will  put  the  University 
in  a  condition  where  it  can  compete  on  equal  terms  with  other  true  uni- 
versities, it  will  directly  in  this  way  alone  recoup  the  whole  outlay. 
Further,  young  men  from  other  States  will  be  drawn  to  the  University  of 
Texas  and  counterflow  begin.  But  besides  this,  familiarity  with  Texas, 
the  revelation  of  the  manifold  advantages  which  this  empire  offers,  the 
ties  of  friendship  and  association  knit  during  college  life,  would  infallibly 
draw  not  a  few  of  these  to  settle  here,  bringing  good  ability  and  often- 
times capital  into  the  State.  Seeing  these  things  no  better  than  the  Texan 
fathers  but  acting  upon  them  far  better  than  the  Texan  sons,  other  States 
have  more  liberally  provided  for  their  universities,  and  they  have  reaped 
the  accruing  benefits.  One  of  the  chief  factors  in  the  rapid  development 
and  enrichment  of  some  of  the  Northwestern  States  is  their  univer- 
sities. .  .  . 

"In  Germany,  where  the  value  of  universities  is  well  appreciated,  after 
the  reconquest  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  the  ancient  University  of  Strassburg, 
destroyed  under  French  domination,  was  reconstituted  in  1872.  In  order 
to  do  this — that  is,  to  make  a  university  of  the  first  class — about  4,500,000 
dollars  was  expended  in  buildings  and  equipment.  .  .  .  Already  a 
library  of  700,000  volumes  has  been  built  up.  Again  the  Grand  Duchy  of 


character  of  its  population  which  must  result  in  the  concentrated  power 
and  elevated  prosperity  of  the  whole  body  politic  in  association.  This  full 
result  can  be  attained  only  by  providing  all  of  the  grades  of  education, 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  in  harmonious  co-operation." — Message  ot 
Governor  Roberts,  April  6,  1882. 


AN    HISTORICAL   DOCUMENT  53 

Baden,  little  more  than  three  times  as  large  as  Travis  county,  with  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  fewer  inhabitants  than  Texas  (i.  e.,  with  about  two- 
thirds  the  population  of  Texas),  poor  and  debt-burdened,  supports,  besides 
other  public  institutions,  two  complete  universities,  Heidelberg  and  Frei- 
berg. .  .  .  Examples  can  be  easily  multiplied.  .  .  . 

"Directly,  as  has  been  shown,  a  great  University  more  than  pays  for 
itself;  indirectly,  though  no  less  surely,  in  many  ways  it  repays  to  the 
people  who  cherish  it,  some  ten,  some  twenty,  some  a  hundredfold;  and 
the  multiplicity  of  repayment  generally  bears  a  ratio  to  the  liberality  of 
support.  Thus  Harvard  and  the  University  of  Virginia  have  many  times 
returned  to  Massachusetts  and  Virginia  the  cost  of  their  maintenance, 
while  adding  lustre  to-  the  names  of  those  States.  The  University  of 
Texas,  in  its  brief,  ill-fed  life,  has  accomplished  a  work  enormously  dis- 
proportionate to  its  cost.  ...  To  look  at  it  from  the  very  lowest 
point  of  view,  this  has  been  a  cheap  advertisement  and  is  silently  doing 
more  for  the  State  than  bureaus  of  information,  statistics  and  immigra- 
tion could  ever  accomplish.  Nothing  so  widely  or  so  successfully  adver- 
tises a  community  as  a  university  of  the  first  class.  It  is,  moreover,  in 
true  universities  that  those  forces  have  germinated  and  developed,  which 
in  profounder  ways  have  brought  unpurchasable  blessings  to  the  lands 
that  have  cherished  them.  ...  If  means  were  furnished  properly  to 
man  and  to  equip  the  University  of  Texas,  it  would,  in  a  brief  time,  be 
recognized  as  one  of  the  very  first  in  the  whole  country,  and  the  sphere 
of  its  usefulness  and  benefactions  would  be  immeasurably  enlarged.  .  .  . 

"The  trained  man  is  always  better  than  the  untrained  man,  and  the 
value  to  the  individual  and  thence  to  the  commonwealth  of  the  highest 
training  is  evident.  It  is  not  indeed  true  that  every  educated  man  will  be 
more  successful  than  every  uneducated  man;  but  it  is  true  and  demon- 
strable that  any  given  man  will  be  more  successful,  if  he  is  educated, 
than  he  would  have  been,  had  he  not  been  educated.  The  struggles  of 
men  that  have  been  great  and  useful,  to  obtain  higher  education,  where 
there  was  no  public  provision  for  it,  are  a  commonplace  in  biographical 
literature.  But,  in  regarding  these,  it  is  apt  to  be  forgotten  how  many 
more  of  just  smaller  ability  or  energy  have  sunk  in  these  struggles  from 
•which  a  few  emerge.  Their  abilities  and  usefulness  are  maimed  and  ham- 
pered, hindered  of  full  fruitage,  both  to  individual  and  to  the  community. 
Universities  act  as  instruments  for  increasing  the  efficiency  of  those  they 
train,  and  with  increased  efficiency  in  its  citizens  a  commonwealth  prospers 
as  would  otherwise  be  impossible.  .  .  . 


54  CO-OPERATION   BY   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

"It  is  a  grave  mistake,  then,  to  suppose  that  universities  are  mere  con- 
trivances to  teach  what  there  is  to  be  known;  they  do  accomplish  this, 
and  it  is  no  light  or  trivial  thing.  But  beyond  this  they  awaken  latent 
capabilities  that  would  otherwise,  save  in  rare  cases,  slumber  or  be  crushed 
out,  and  thus  be  lost  to  the  individual  and  the  State;  silently  and  subtly 
(forces  that  lie  beneath  the  surface  are  ever  potent )  they  vivify  the  people 
externally  and  internally.  A  public  free  university  is  the  only  means  by, 
which  the  poor  man's  children  utilize  without  serious  loss  the  native 
ability  which  God  has  given  them.  The  rich  can  afford  to  pay  for  the 
best  education  the  world  can  give  and  thus  reap  the  gain  of  it;  but  to 
the  poor  and  to  those  of  narrow  means,  enormous  and  generally  insur- 
mountable obstacles  lie  across  the  path,  unless  a  home  institution  equal 
to  any  is  supported  by  the  State.  In  the  name  of  these,  the  major  por- 
tion of  the  population,  the  Regents  make  appeal." 

Co-operation  by  the  Federal  Government 

Co-operation  by  the  federal  government  in  regard  to  agricul- 
tural experiment  stations  has  been  referred  to.  It  is  an  indica- 
tion of  the  vastness  of  the  need  and  opportunities  for  scientific 
assistance  to  all  industries,  that  it  is  now  proposed  to  do  for  min- 
ing what  has  been  done  for  agriculture.  The  "Foster  Bill"  has 
already  been  very  favorably  considered  and  a  similar  bill  will  prob- 
ably be  considered  by  the  next  Congress.  The  bill  provides  that 
appropriations,  beginning  at  $5,000  a  year  and  rising  $5,000  each 
succeeding  year  to  $25,000  as  the  annual  appropriation  thereafter, 
shall  be  paid  to  each  State  for  the  maintenance  of  a  school  of 
mines  in  one  of  its  state  educational  institutions.  The  object  of 
the  proposed  appropriation  is  the  encouragement  of  instruction, 
research,  and  experiment  with  a  view  to  teaching  scientific  knowl- 
edge of  the  best  and  safest  methods  of  mining  and  producing 
metals,  coal  and  other  minerals,  oil,  gas,  and  medicinal  waters, 
and  the  concentrating  and  refining  and  other  preparation  of  the 
same  for  marketing;  and  the  study  and  prevention  of  explosions, 
fires,  and  other  dangers  incident  to  mining,  in  order  to  secure  in- 
telligent conservation,  use,  and  development  of  the  resources  of 


CO-OPERATION"    BY   FEDERAL   GOVERXMENT  55 

the  country,  to  make  the  lives  of  miners  more  safe  and  property 
in  mines  more  secure,  and  to  promote  the  general  welfare.*  The 
bill  provides:  "If  there  be  already  established  in  any  State  a 
school  of  mines  and  mining  under  the  control  of  said  State,  or  a 
department  of  instruction  in  mining  connected  with  any  institu- 
tion of  learning  controlled  by  said  State,  then  the  moneys  appro- 
priated in  this  Act  shall  go  to  said  school  or  department  of  in- 
struction already  established." 

The  last  quoted  provision  of  the  bill  would  determine  the  loca- 
tion of  the  school  in  Texas,  inasmuch  as  there  is  no  school  of 
mines  at  the  A.  and  M.  College,  and  one  has  been  "already  estab- 
lished" in  the  University.  The  University  "School  of  Mines"  is, 
indeed,  a  very  feeble  affair,  but  when  taken  together  with  the 
"University  Bureau  of  Economic  Geology  and  Technology,"  a  re- 
spectable recipient  of  the  federal  aid  exists.  Those  two  parts  of 
the  University  naturally  belong  in  one  school,  if  such  a  bill 
should  be  enacted  by  the  Congress.  The  following  official  state- 
ment of  the  Bureau  of  Economic  Geology  shows  how  exactly  in 
line  its  work  is  with  the  proposed  federal  co-operation: 

"In  order  to  meet  the  steady  demand  for  information  concerning  the 
mineral  resources  of  the  State,  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  University 
established  a  Bureau  of  Economic  Geology  and  Technology  in  the  year 
1909.  In  so  far  as  the  funds  available  have  permitted,  this  bureau  lias 
resumed  the  work  of  the  University  Mineral  Survey  which  was  suspended 
in  the  year  1905,  from  lack  of  means. 

"The  action  of  the  Board  of  Regents  in  providing  means  for  the  main- 
tenance of  such  a  bureau  marks  an  entirely  new  departure  in  educational 
work.  No  other  institution  of  learning  in  the  country  has  taken  upon 
itself  the  duty  of  providing,  at  its  own  expense,  an  office  to  which  any 
one  may  apply  for  information  of  this  character.  Great  interest  is  now 
being  shown  in  the  investigation  and  development  of  the  mineral  wealth 
of  the  State,  not  only  by  the  citizens  of  Texas,  but  by  others  from  beyond 
its  borders. 

"The   economic    importance    of    the    bureau's    work   for    the    State    may 


"Condensed  from  Sec.  3  of  the  bill. 


56  AN   IMPORTANT  DISTINCTION 

be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  present  annual  value  of  the  mineral 
products  of  Texas  is  close  to  $20,000,000. 

"In  connection  with  its  work  the  bureau  maintains  a  large  collection 
of  material  illustrative  of  the  economic  geology  of  Texas;  asphalt  rocks; 
cement;    clays;    coal   and  lignite;    building  and  ornamental   stones;    ores 
of  copper,  silver,  lead,  zinc,  quicksilver,  iron,  tin,  uranium,  etc.;  oils  and 
sections  of  oil  wells;    sulphur;    graphite;    salt;   minerals  for   the  manu- 
facture of  white  lime,  paving  brick,  etc.     These  collections  were  begun  by 
the    Texas    Geological    Survey,    1888-1892,    continued    by    the    University 
Mineral    Survey,    1901-1905,    and   now   comprise   by   far   the    largest    and 
best  collection  to  illustrate  the  economic  geology  of  Texas  ever  brought 
together.      The  building  and  ornamental  stones  shown  in  six-inch  cubes, 
columns,   slabs,  etc.,   cannot  be   duplicated  anywhere.      They  exhibit   the 
wealth    of    the    State,    in    this    direction,    in    a    beautiful    and    attractive 
manner.     Additions    are    constantly    being   made.      The   museum    is    con- 
sulted by  architects,  contractors,  and  builders,  as  well  as  by  many  who 
are  concerned  in  the  development  of  the  State  along  other  lines.     .     .     . 
"In  July,    1911,  the  bureau   issued   a  complete  report  on  The   Compo- 
sition  of   Texas    Coals   and   Lignites    and   The   Use  of   Producer    Gas    in 
Texas.     In   connection   with   the    investigation   of    the   fuels  of   the   State 
an   experimental   gas   plant   is   in   active  operation.      The   different  coals 
and  lignites   are  being  distilled  for  the  production  of  heating  and  illu- 
minating  gas,    tar    and   sulphate  of   ammonia.     This    inquiry    is    also   to 
include  an  examination  of  the  different  woods  used  for  fuel  in  this  State. 
A    course    in    The    Technology    of    Fuels    has   been   given    by    the   bureau 
during  the  year.     .     .     . 

"Arrangements  are  being  made  for  the  installation  of  an  experimental 
gas  producer  in  which  the  coals  and  lignites  of  the  State  may  be  tested 
in  a  practical  manner.  This  will  be  distinct  from  the  experimental  gas 
plant  already  in  operation,  as  the  work  in  this  latter  plant  is  for  the 

purpose  of   investigating  the  products  from  the  distillation  of  coal  and 

fb*. 

lignite  in  closed  retorts. 

"Through  the  purchase  of  the  private  library  of  a  prominent  gas  and 
coal  engineer,  supplemented  by  newer  books  on  these  subjects,  the  bureau 
has  now  at  its  disposal  the  best  technical  library  in  the  entire  southwest." 

It  would  be  an  unfortunate  misunderstanding,  if  any  one  should 
wish,  to  apply  to  the  routine  affairs  of  private  business  the  policy 
rightly  adopted  by  the  bureau  of  economic  geology  in  offering  its 


SCHOOL   OF   MINES  57 

services  to  all  inquirers  who  are  investigating  ways  and  means  of 
discovering  and  exploiting  the  mineral  resources  of  Texas.  It  is 
in  the  main  new  knowledge,  not  otherwise  obtainable,  that  the 
TTniversily's  bureau  of  economic  geology  and  the  A.  and  M.  Qol- 
lege's  experiment  stations  seek  and  offer.  Few  things  would  be 
more  weak  and  foolish  than  to  yield  to  importunities  from  private 
individuals,  or  from  governmental  agencies  (such  as  prosecuting 
attorneys),  for  gratuitous  services  of  a  routine  kind,  e.  g.,  analyses 
of  substances  or  human  organs  suspected  of  containing  poisons, 
mere  assays  of  familiar  ores,  etc.  President  James  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Illinois  has  made  the  following  pertinent  remarks  on  this 
subject : 

"The  larger  our  income  becomes  the  greater  the  pressure  for  this 
sort  of  thing.  The  last  legislature  passed  a  law  giving  the  University 
of  Illinois  the  benefit  of  a  mill  tax  (10  cents  on  $100)  beginning  July  1, 
1913.  That  will  probably  give  us  two  and  one-half  million  dollars  per 
year.  Accompanying  that  and  springing  up  in  its  wake  since  has  been 
an  enormous  demand  on  the  part  of  almost  everybody  who  could  think 
of  anything  the  university  might  do  for  him  to  write  us  and  ask  us 
to  undertake  it,  pleading  the  increase  of  our  resources.  I  think  it  is 
one  of  the  greatest  dangers  which  state  universities  have  to  face — this 
tendency  of  the  private  business  man  to  call  on  us  for  the  solution  of 
some  practical  problem  in  his  own  business  which  could  be  solved  by 
any  chemist  just  as  well  as  by  the  chemists  appointed  by  the  University 
of  Illinois.  I  think  these  are  very  large  problems  that  will  come  up  to 
trouble  us  with  increasing  frequency  and  force  and  degree  as  the  years 
go  on." 

No  school  of  mines,  or  courses  in  mining  engineering  should 
be  duplicated  in  two  state  institutions.  This  is  now  so  well  un- 
derstood, that  in  States  where  the  mistake  has  been  made,  the 
weaker  of  tht  two  schools  will  probably  soon  be  discontinued.  Dr. 
K.  C.  Babcock,  Specialist  in  Higher  Education  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau 
of  Education,  speaking  a  year  ago,  gave  an  amusing  instance: 
"I  am  glad  to  report  that  at  least  one  institution  has  seen  light 
in  this  matter  and  has  abandoned  outright  its  rudimentary  min- 


58  CO-OPEKATION    WITH    COLLEGES 

ing  engineering  course.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  its  president  has 
practially  agreed  that,  if  any  student  in  his  institution  finds  him- 
self strongly  hent  upon  mining  engineering,  such  student  shall 
have  his  fare  paid  to  a  good  mining  engineering  school,  to  get 
first-class  technical  instruction,  and  that  his  university,  at  least, 
shall  not  undertake  this  highly  expensive  course." 

A  school  of  mines  involves  some  of  the  most  expensive  courses 
of  instruction  that  are  undertaken  hy  educational  institutions.  It 
is  for  that  reason,  coupled  with  the  importance  of  conserving  and 
exploiting  in  the  light  of  scientific  knowledge  the  mineral  re- 
sources of  the  country,  that  the  Congress  contemplates  co-operat- 
ing with  the  several  States  for  the  improvement  of  schools  of 
mines.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Texas  will  in  the  near  future  begin 
to  perform  its  part  in  the  co-operation  intended  by  the  federal 
government,  in  regard  to  both  agriculture  and  mining.  If  Texas 
had  no  other  interest  than  the  deposits  of  lignite  that  underlie 
one-fourth  of  its  entire  area,  it  would  be  a  paying  investment 
for  the  coffers  of  the  Slate — to  say  nothing  of  the  benefits  to  its 
citizens — to  spend  as  much  as  the  State  spends  on  any  entire  in- 
stitution, on  investigations  and  experiments  for  improved  opera- 
tions in  mining  lignite  and  preparing  it  for  economical  use. 

Co-operation  with  Colleges 

The  relations  between  a  state  university  and  secondary  schools, 
especially  the  public  high  schools,  constitute  the  most  important  of 
all  fields  of  educational  co-operation;  but  the  main  features  of 
that  co-operation  belong  to  Part  II  of  this  study* — being  affairs 
of  internal  organization  and  administration.  Relations  of  a  state 


*See,  also,  an  address  by  the  present  writer  before  the  Department  of 
Higher  Education  of  the  Southern  Educational  Association.  Dec.,  1011, 
on  "The  Proper  Relation  of  the  American  University  to  the  American 
High  School,"  published  in  the  1911  volume  of  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Association,  in  the  Jan.,  1912,  issue  of  the  Texas  School  Journal,  in  the 
Jan.,  1912,  issue  of  the  American  School  Board  Journal,  and  in  the 
Sept.,  1912,  issue  of  the  American  Educational  Review. 


CO-OPERATION    WITH    COLLEGES  59 

institution  with  denominational  and  privately  endowed  colleges 
do  not  fall  much  within  the  express  title  of  Part  I — "Features 
of  Organization  for  which  the  Legislature  is  Responsible/'  but 
the  legislature  is  not  without  some  direct  responsibility.  The 
colleges  of  every  sort  have  all  been  created  by  the  authority  of 
the  State,  and  their  graduates  offer  their  services  and  their 
degrees  in  a  common  market.  "The  State  should  concern  itself/' 
says  Dr.  Babcock,  Specialist  in  Higher  Education  in  the  II.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education,  "with  three  things  related  to  these  colleges 
[not  state  institutions]  :  they  should  contribute  to,  and  not  un- 
dermine,, the  efficiency  of  education  in  the  state;  they  should 
describe  and  maintain  the  definite  standards  which  give  them  a 
reason  for  being;  and  their  education  should  be  what  it  professes 
to  be,  so  that  the  time  and  money  of  no  student  or  citizen  of  the 
state  shall  be  obtained  under  false  pretenses  or  through  misrep- 
resentation. The  law  of  the  state  of  New  York  should  be  a  model 
for  other  states  in  reforming  their  control  of  educational  institu- 
tions within  their  borders."  Speaking  of  the  colleges  of  the  whole 
country,  the  same  writer  tells  the  results  of  wide  investigations, 
as  follows: 

"There  is  a  wide  difference  in  institutions  bearing  the  name  of  col- 
lege. Probably  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  institutions  calling  them- 
selves colleges  or  universities  are  doing  little  more  than  preparatory 
work.  Another  twenty-five  per  cent,  or,  perhaps,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
colleges,  are  doing  only  fairly  effectively  the  first  two  years  of  a  four 
years  course.  At  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  more  are  simply  colleges, 
but  well  established  upon  the  four  years  basis,  with  good  endowments, 
and  with  reasonable  prospects  of  permanence.  .  .  . 

"Recently  there  has  come  to  our  attention  in  the  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion the  operations  of  several  sorts  of  colleges  or  universities  of  ques- 
tionable origin  and  practices.  Some  of  them  are  pure  fakes.  Some  of 
them  proceed  in  objectionable  ways  to  offer  courses  and  degrees  by  cor- 
respondence, even  in  such  subjects  as  dentistry,  civil  engineering,  and 
electrical  engineering.  Another  group  cheapen  degrees  and  scholarship 
by  methods,  which,  if  used  in  law  or  medicine,  would  be  characterized 
as  unprofessional.  No  effective  attempt  seems  to  have  been  made,  either 


60  CO-OPERATION    WITH    COLLEGES 

by  the  state  university  or  by  the  state,  within  the  states  in  which  these 
institutions  are  located,  to  protect  their  own  citizens,  or  those  of  other 
States  who  are  reached  by  correspondence  and  advertising,  from  impo- 
sition by  these  offending  or  degenerate  institutions.  No  state  has  a 
monopoly  of  the  odium  of  granting  charters  indiscriminately.  .  .  . 
Washington  and  Chicago  are  two  chief  centers  of  educational  mal- 
practice." 

President  Pritchett's  remarks  upon  the  most  flagrant  instance 
of  neglect  of  legislative  responsibility,  conclude  with  a  suggestion 
which  indicates  how  far-reaching  may  be  the  obligation  of  every 
institution  of  higher  education.  In  his  Sixth  Annual  Eeport  to 
the  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching,  he  says : 

"Congress,  occupied  with  its  larger  duties,  has  so  neglected,  as  the 
local  legislature  for  the  district,  to  throw  safeguards  around  the  estab- 
lishment of  institutions  that  any  three  citizens,  no  matter  how  meagre 
their  qualifications,  may  incorporate  themselves  as  a  university  and  con- 
fer any  degree,  except  in  medicine.  It  is  not  necessary  for  them  to  pro- 
cure any  endowment,  to  own  any  equipment,  or  even  to  have  any  habitat 
beyond  a  postoffice  address.  The  curriculum  is  entirely  within  their 
control,  and  they  might  legally  confer  bachelor's,  master's,  and  doctor's 
degrees  upon  every  person  in  the  United  States,  or  in  the  universe, 
upon  the  sole  condition  of  the  willingness  of  the  recipient.  The  only 
condition  that  is  generally  enforced  is  a  financial  one.  Washington  has 
therefore  become  logically  the  home  of  a  large  number  of  institutions 
whose  dishonest  practices  are  immensely  aided  by  the  apparent  prestige 
of  a  location  at  the  federal  capital,  and  by  the  astounding  privilege 
which  enables  these  enterprises  to  say  truly,  that  they  are  'incorporated 
under  the  provisions  of  an  Act  of  Congress.'  It  is  impossible  to  believe 
that  the  many  educated  men  in  both  houses  of  Congress  will  not  gladly 
terminate  this  abuse,  whenever  the  college  authorities  that  are  among 
their  constituents  shall  generally  request  it." 

In  his  Fourth  Annual  Eeport  President  Pritchett  indicated 
where  the  fundamental  responsibility  for  honesty  in  the  names 
and  pretensions  of  educational  institutions  rests : 

"It  is  evident  that  the  thousand  institutions  in  the  United  States  call- 
ing themselves  colleges  or  universities  cannot  all  find  places  as  such  in  it. 


CO-OPERATION    WITH    COLLEGES  61 

It  is  incredible,  for  instance,  that  fifty-two  colleges  shall  continue  in  the 
educational  system  of  Ohio,  or  six  Methodist  colleges  in  that  of  Iowa. 
.  .  .  Many  institutions  now  calling  themselves  universities  ought 
frankly  to  face  the  situation  and  become  colleges,  and  many  calling  them- 
selves colleges  ought  to  become  academies.  ...  It  is  a  condition 
precedent  to  such  endeavor  that  we  form  the  habit  of  calling  things  by 
their  right  names.  .  .  .  Some  of  these  so-called  universities  have  the 
means  and  the  situation  to  be  most  useful  as  colleges,  but  they  can  never 
justify  their  existence  as  universities  and  they  will  demoralize  the  edu- 
cation of  their  respective  states  so  long  as  they  attempt  it.  It  is  the 
clear  duty  of  the  president  and  trustees  of  such  an  institution  to  place  it 
both  by  name  and  by  actual  administration  in  the  class  to  which  it  belongs 
and  in  which  it  could  serve  the  cause  of  education  efficiently.  There  is 
perhaps  no  other  situation  which  presents  to  a  conscientious  college  presi- 
dent such  difficulties  as  the  effort  to  reduce  the  pretensions  of  his  insti- 
tution or  to  give  it  a  more  modest  name.  He  must  contend  with  the 
swollen  pride  of  the  community  inflated  in  large  measure  by  the  college's 
own  action,  with  the  undiscriminating  loyalty  of  sentimental  alumni,  with 
the  opposition  of  those  who  sit  in  secure  places.  Nevertheless,  this  way 
lie  academic  honor,  institutional  honesty,  and  educational  progress  for 
those  who  have  the  courage  and  the  tact  and  the  patience  to  enter  upon 
the  task." 

It  would  carry  us  beyond  the  sphere  of  this  study  to  discuss  the 
substance  and  limits  of  proper  legislative  control  of  colleges  that 
are  not  state  institutions.  Eecklessness  in  granting  charters  has 
been  the  mother  of  injurious  colleges  and  universities,  as  well  as 
of  injurious  industrial  and  financial  combinations.  The  New  York 
law  would  supply  many  practical  suggestions. 

There  is  no  ground  in  Texas  for  hostile  competition*  between 
state  and  local  and  endowed  institutions.  Amity  and  sympathy 


*In  most  of  the  states  such  competition  is  disappearing,  though  evil 
consequences  of  the  past  still  remain  in  some  of  them.  President 
Pritchett  has  said:  "Perhaps  there  is  no  state  in  the  Union  in  which 
the  unlimited  competition  between  denominational,  state,  and  local  insti- 
tutions has  so  fully  done  its  perfect  work  as  in  Ohio.  All  forms  of 
politics  and  religion  abound  within  its  borders.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  any  twig  of  doctrine  transplanted  to  the  Western  Reserve  will 


62  CO-OPERATION    WITH    COLLEGES 

prevail:  and  the  systematic  co-operation,  which  it  is  the  pur- 
pose of  these  paragraphs  to  stimulate,  has  been  cordially  begun. 
It  may  be  serviceable,  however,  to  state  distinctly  some  of  the  rea- 
sons for  some  desirable  methods  of  such  co-operation. 

Every  strong  state  university  must  sooner  or  later  face  the  duty 
of  deciding  which  of  the  many  colleges  in  its  State  shall  re- 
ceive its  direct  and  open  co-operation,  and  which  shall  be  allowed 
to  go  their  way  without  such  endorsement.  Dr.  Babcock,  in  a 
paper  on  "Relations  of  the  State  University  to  the  Colleges  of  the 
State/'  describes  the  general  situation  as  follows : 

"Hitherto  the  state  university  has  not  been  in  a  position  to  dis- 
criminate very  carefully,  certainly  not  very  positively  and  openly,  in 
favor  of  institutions  which  are  sturdy,  well  endowed,  and  loyal  to  good 
educational  ideals.  One  state  university,  for  example,  has  a  scholarship 
for  one  graduate  from  each  degree-granting  institution  within  the  state, 
assuming  that  the  students  who  thus  undertake  graduate  work  at  the 
university  will  all  be  substantially  equal  in  preparation.  This  assump- 
tion is  not  justified  by  the  facts;  the  university  authorities  know  per- 
fectly well  that  there  is  a  wide  difference  in  conditions  and  scholarship 
in  the  various  institutions,  and  that  these  differences  are  reflected  in 
the  training  of  the  students  accredited. 

"This  easy-going  acceptance  of  unequal  degrees  of  different  institu- 
tions is  bound  to  pass  away.  Greater  frankness  and  not  less  sympathy 
will  be  demanded  from  the  state  universities.  With  ten,  twenty,  or 
thirty  colleges  in  the  state,  the  university  should  make  public  recogni- 
tion of  the  merits  of  the  worthy,  though  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  speak 
equally  frankly  of  the  deficiencies  of  the  weak  or  unworthy.  Steps  in 
this  direction  have  been  taken  in  several  states.  The  University  of  Wis- 
consin has  announced  in  its  catalog  a  scheme  of  co-ordination  of  the 
work  of  certain  colleges  with  the  work  of  the  university,  so  that  a 


flourish  like  a  green  bay  tree.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  certainly 
true  that  Ohio  is  the  most  be-colleged  state  in  the  Union.  Over  fifty 
institutions  have  been  chartered  by  that  generous  commonwealth,  with 
power  to  confer  the  learned  and  professional  degrees;  and  I  am  told 
that  a  man  can  get  more  kinds  of  college  degrees  in  Ohio  for  less  money 
than  in  any  other  region,  unless  it  be  in  Chicago,  111.,  or  Washing- 
ton, D.  C." 


CO-OPERATIOX    WITH    COLLEGES  63 

student   at  the  end  of   two  years   may  transfer   from  the   college  to   the 
university   without  loss   of  time  or  credits. 

"Such  a  policy  of  discrimination  requires  courage,  patience,  tact,  and 
frankness  on ,  the  part  of  the  college,  as  well  as  on  the  part  of  the 
universities;  but  in  the  long  run  the  colleges  so  co-operating  will  gain 
greatly.  Some  of  those  who  choose  to  go  their  way  without  co-opera- 
tion will  inevitably  disappear  through  death  or  by  combination  with 
other  institutions;  some  will  undertake  only  two  years  of  college  work. 
While  the  university  cannot  afford  to  assume  the  function  of  execu- 
tioner of  the  weak,  it  can  afford  and  should  afford  to  announce  definite 
alliance  with  efficient  colleges,  recognize  their  work,  and  assist  them  in 
doing  it  with  ever  progressively  better  results.  I  am  not  pleading  for 
the  colleges  as  such,  but  rather  for  the  great  mass  of  students  who  are 
now  seeking  college  education. 

"It  would  be  a  great  gain  to  the  university,  to  the  colleges,  and  to 
students,  if  the  university  could  perfect  arrangements  with  the  colleges 
that  might  say  to  students  just  graduating  from  the  high  school,  'Go  to 
college  A,  or  college  B,  whose  curriculum,  faculty,  and  equipment  are 
satisfactory  to  us;  do  two.  or  three,  or  four  years'  work  there;  then 
come,  if  you  will,  to  the  university  for  advanced,  or  graduate,  or  pro- 
fessional work.  I  believe  that  one  gain  to  the  college  in  this  process 
would  be  an  increase  in  the  number  of  students  who  remain  at  the  col- 
lege for  four  years,  instead  of  dropping  out  at  the  end  of  two  years; 
and  the  peculiar  influence  which  the  smaller  college  is  supposed  to  exert 
upon  the  character  of  its  students  would  be  given  opportunity  to  do  its 
perfect  work. 

"I  believe  that  one  of  the  most  serious  wastes  in  the  present  admin- 
istration of  large  state  universities  is  through  inadequate  provision  for 
the  care  and  direction  of  freshmen  and  sophomores.  The  great  institu- 
tions need  to  pass  a  self-denying  ordinance  that  they  will  seek,  not  more 
freshmen,  but  fewer,  that  they  will  receive  only  so  many  as  their  resources 
of  men  and  space  will  enable  them  to  teach  thoroughly  and  inspir- 
ingly.  If  the  state  university  can  go  so  far  as  this,  ...  it  will 
be  ...  relieved  of  pressure  upon  its  resources,  .  .  .  and  can 
energize  its  advanced  work  and  make  it  dominated  by  a  real  university 
spirit.  .  .  . 

"Most  state  universities  have  demonstrated  the  value  of  a  system  of 
accredited  high  schools  for  preparing  students  for  the  university.  I 
am  confident  that  the  development  of  a  group  of  smaller  colleges  between 


64  CO-OPERATION    WITH    COLLEGES 

the  high  schools  and  the  upper-class  or  professional  work  of  the  univer- 
sity would  in  many  states  bring  relief  to  the  university,  enlargement  of 
beneficent  influence  to  the  college,  a  well  directed  education  to  the  stu- 
dent, and  economy  to  the  whole  higher  educational  system  of  that  state." 

Dean  Birge  of  Wisconsin  agrees  with  Dr.  Babcock  in  recognizing 
the  same  trouble,  and  the  University  of  Wisconsin  and  the  best 
colleges  in  that  State  are  now  co-operating  in  the  way  which  he 
points  out  as  leading  to  the  best  remedy  or  palliative  for  the  trou- 
ble. The  following  statement  by  Dean  Birge  indicates  at  least  a 
partial  cause  of  the  trouble.  He  says: 

"I  don't  know  any  state  university  with  five  thousand  students  that 
is  striving  for  seven  thousand.  If  there  is  anything  that  keeps  us  poor 
and  makes  us  unhappy,  it  is  the  great  number  of  low  gra,de  students 
we  are  obliged  to  accept.  I  have  never  known  a  year  at  the  University  of 
Wisconsin,  and  my  recollection  goes  back  forty  years,  when  we  have 
not  had  more  students  than  we  could  fairly  educate  with  the  money  we 
have  had. 

"It  is  a  situation  into  which  we  have  been  pushed  by  pressure  from  the 
secondary  schools;  and  I  think  our  experience  has  been  duplicated  in  many 
other  state  universities.  We  have  recently  enlarged,  at  great  expense,  the 
number  of  courses  for  which  we  will  accept  students.  We  have  done  this, 
not  because  we  wanted  the  students,  but  in  response  to  the  demands  of 
the  representatives  of  the  secondary  schools.  The  high  schools  have  ac- 
commodated their  tuition  very  largely  to  those  who  never  expect  to  go 
beyond,  and  who  have  reached  the  limit,  or  passed  the  limit,  of  their 
profitable  study  of  books.  As  a  consequence,  students  come  to  us  who 
have  not  been  handled  in  a  vigorous  way  and  have  not  received  any 
adequate  intellectual  training.  That  is  the  fundamental  trouble  that 
confronts  us." 

President  Pritchett  in  his  Fourth  Annual  Report  makes  the 
game  diagnosis  as  Dr.  Babcock  and  Dean  Birge : 

"The  state  universities  represent  a  wide  range  of  educational  equip- 
ment and  of  educational  standards.  Nevertheless  while  some  of  them  are 
still  weak,  all  have  set  before  themselves  the  ideal  of  a  strong  institu- 
tion crowning  the  state  system  of  education  with  true  college  standards 
of  admission  and  of  scholarship.  Among  the  agricultural  and  mechani- 


CO-OPERATION    WITH   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARIES  65 

cal  colleges,  however,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  recognize  any  such  com- 
mon purpose.  ...  A  feature  characteristic  of  both  the  state  univer- 
sities and  the  state  colleges  of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts  is  the 
oversupply  of  students.  No  one  can  study  these  large  institutions  with- 
out realizing  that  even  the  strongest  and  best  of  them  are  today  ham- 
pered by  the  presence  of  more  students  than  they  can  really  care  for,  and 
that  their  efficiency  is  also  diminished  by  the  fact  that  a  considerable 
proportion  of  students  are  admitted  to  nearly  all  of  them  who  are  not 
really  ready  for  college." 

The  University  of  Texas  has  now  over  two  thousand  students 
for  the  regular  term  of  enrollment — half  of  the  number  in  the 
resourceful  University  of  Wisconsin.  There  are  clear  indications 
of  tendencies  to  extraordinary  increase  of  the  number  of  students 
in  the  near  future.  It,  therefore,  behooves  the  University  of  Texas 
to  ponder  well  this  question,  remembering  that  prevention  is  better 
than  cure. 

Co-operation  ivith  Theological  Seminaries 

Theological  seminaries  are  offered  a  method  of  co-operation  with 
great  universities  that  presents  extraordinary  advantages  to  the 
seminaries,  and  has  proved  to  be  acceptable  to  the  universities.  If 
the  churches  would  locate  their  theological  seminaries  in  prox- 
imity to  the  university  campus,  each  seminary  would  be  relieved  of 
the  cost  of  instruction  in  academic  branches,  and  could  devote  all 
its  resources  to  the  distinctive  work  of  its  theological  school.  The 
quality  and  force  of  the  theological  instruction  could  be  vastly 
improved,  and  the  academic  work  would  be  done  better  than  is 
possible  in  an  isolated  seminary  hampered  by  narrow  means — in- 
sufficient for  the  double  task.  The  students  of  the  seminary  would 
profit  both  ways. 

The  university,  on  its  part,  would  have  the  satisfaction  of  en- 
lightening and  strengthening  by  its  services  a  class  of  students 
whose  influence  is  destined  to  be  further  reaching  than  that  of 
most  men — thus  fulfilling  the  university's  chief  object  and  aspira- 
tion. In  so  far  as  the  seminary  courses  of  instruction  meet  high 


66  CO-OPERATION    WITH   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARIES 

standards  of  scholarship  and  vigor,  the  university  should  make 
many  of  them  acceptable  for  credits  in  its  own  appropriate  depart- 
ments—-history,  language,  philosophy,  for  instance. 

The  ideal  cc-operation  thus  briefly  sketched  has  been  realized 
between  a  theological  seminary  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  the 
University  of  Texas.  There  is  a  group  of  four  or  five  theological 
schools  around  the  University  of  California,  recently  moved  thither 
or  newly  established  there,  who  co-operate  with  each  other  as  well  as 
with  the  university  and  announce  that  they  find  it  "wise  economy  to 
use  these  university  courses  rather  than  to  provide  them  ourselves  at 
great  expense."  A  seminary  of  the  Christian  Church  has  been 
built  adjacent  to  the  campus  of  the  University  of  Oregon,  and 
interchange  of  students  and  credits  has  been  established.  Close 
to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  are  three  theological  semina- 
ries, combination  courses  in  university  and  seminary  being  en- 
couraged from  both  sides.  Eeciprocal  relations  have  developed 
between  the  University  of  Cincinnati  and  two  nearby  theological 
schools.  Three  or  four  theological  institutions  have  such  rela- 
tions with  Harvard  University.  In  New  York  City  many  theo- 
logical seminaries  and  universities  cherish  mutual  relations. 

If  several  large  denominations  would  adopt  the  policy  here  rec- 
ommended, a  great  and  difficult  problem  would  be  solved.  There 
is  serious  ground  for  President  Van  Hise's  contention,  that  "theol- 
ogy should  be  taught  in  part  in  the  universities,  even  in  the  state 
universities/'  It  is  true,  as  he  says,  that,  "the  universities  cannot 
afford  to  ignore  the  science  that  gives  unity  to  the  world  and  life, 
and  defines  the  nature  of  rational  faith."  But  state  universities 
in  this  country  cannot  meet  his  demand.  It  is  not  a  theory,  but 
a  condition.  But  there  is  no  prejudice  on  the  part  of  the  gen- 
eral public  against  thorough  and  cordial  co-operation  between  a 
state  university  and  a  theological  seminary  situated  in  the  same 
locality.  A  very  generally  desired  end  would  be  gained  in  a  legiti- 
mate and  dignified  manner,  well  adapted — instead  of  repugnant — 
to  the  predilections  of  the  American  people.  The  only  obstacle 


INDIVIDUAL    CO-OPERATION  67 

rests  in  the  inertia  or  prejudices  of  the  denominations  themselves. 
But  the  spirit  of  the  times  is  working  in  favor  of  this  co-operative 
method :  denominational  prejudices  are  everywhere  breaking  down. 
Many  denominations  are  establishing  at  many  state  universities 
(c.  g.,  California,  Kansas,  Oregon,  Texas,  Wisconsin,  etc.)  halls 
or  houses  for  the  care  and  religious  stimulation  of  university  stu- 
dents affiliated  with  their  churches.  Their  theological  seminaries 
will  follow. 

Co-operation  by  Individual  Citizens 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  generous  men  of  wealth  would 
use  their  means  wisely  by  contributing  to  a  state  educational  in- 
stitution in  the  way  of  endowment  for  general  purposes.  It  is 
probably  better  for  the  people  that  they  should  pay  for  the  regular 
maintenance  of  any  public  enterprise  vital  to  their  own  welfare. 
It  is  possible  that  a  state  university,  or  agricultural  college,  favored 
by  large  private  endowment  for  general  purposes,  would  be  more 
poorly  supported  in  the  long  run  than  if  it  had  never  received  such 
a  donation.  On  the  other  hand,  a  good  building  or  land  for  build- 
ings would  be  helpful.  But  there  are  always  some  needs  of  a 
sort  that  legislatures  are  prone  to  disregard  or  deny,  to  which  a 
private  gift  could  be  most  usefully  applied;  for  instance,  the  full 
endowment  of  a  chair  in  a  subject  the  importance  of  which  the 
general  public  does  not  appreciate;  or,  a  building  erected  to  be  a 
model  of  beauty  and  utility,  and  for  a  purpose  likely  to  be  neg- 
lected by  the  dispensers  of  public  funds.  There  is  a  particular 
example  of  the  kind  last  mentioned  which  has  some  features  of 
especial  interest.  With  it  I  shall  conclude  the  suggestions  offered 
in  this  chapter. 

In  a  recent  issue  of  Science  (June  26,  1912)  Dr.  Udden,  of  the 
University  of  Texas  Bureau  of  Economic  Geology,  published  a 
striking  account  of  museum  buildings  in  the  United  States.  He 
found  from  the  best  available  data  that  there  are  sixty-five  build- 
ings devoted  to  natural  history  museums  in  this  country,  and  that 
the  cost  of  the  buildings  had  been  $37,232,000.  He  prepared  a 


68  INDIVIDUAL   CO-OPERATION 

map,  as  here  printed,  to  show  graphically  the  location  of  all  the 
museum  buildings,  and  the  startling  vacuum  in  the  Southwest. 
The  following  table  gives  some  of  the  facts  reported  by  Dr.  Udden : 

Number  of  Cost  of 

Groups  of  States                                             Museums  Buildings 

Six  Middle  States 16 $17,478,000 

Fifteen  N.  Central  States 16 8,466,000 

District  of  Columbia 2 4,400,000 

Six  New  England  States 19 4,910,000 

Eleven  Mountain  and  Pacific  States 10 1,836,000 

Two  Southern  States 2 142,000 


40  States  and  D.  C 65 $37,232,000 

It  was  shown  that  not  less  than  21  of  these  museum  buildings 
were  built  during  the  decade  1900-1909 ;  that  36  of  them,  costing 
$18,958,000,  had  been  private  donations;  and  that  15  of  them, 
costing  $1,382,000,  belonged  to  universities. 

Dr.  Udden's  concluding  remarks  present  very  persuasively  the 
suggestion  I  wish  to  submit.  He  says  in  part:  "It  is  evident  that 
the  growth  of  our  museums  is  largely  parallel  with  the  growth  of 
our  national  wealth  and  with  the  progress  of  higher  education  in 
our  own  country.  It  is  during  the  last  fifty  years  that  American 
universities  have  begun  to  provide  adequate  facilities  for  higher 
education  of  the  American  youth.  .  .  . 

"The  irregularities  in  the  series  show  that  it  does  not  repre- 
sent the  activities  of  any  great  number  of  individuals.  The  series 
is  clearly  an  expression  of  a  few  potent  factors,  acting  through  the 
medium  of  exceptional  men.  ...  It  requires  a  prophet's  in- 
stincts and  faith  to  make  enormous  investments  looking  to  the 
awakening  of  living  truths  in  the  human  intellect  by  the  collec- 
tion and  care  of  what  the  average  man  would  scorn  as  'dry  bones.' 

"The  map  indicates  roughly  the  geographic  distribution  and 
the  course  of  westward  travel  of  the  scientific  mind  of  our  nation. 
It  has  blazed  a  trail  from  Boston  via  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
to  San  Francisco.  It  shows  also  the  lingering  effects  of  the  world's 


MUSEUMS 


69 


70  INDIVIDUAL  CO-OPERATION 

most  cruel  war.  Museuiru  are  the  creations  of  intellect  and 
wealth.  Our  great  civil  war  destroyed  the  wealth  of  the  south. 
Hence  the  insignificant  sum  spent  for  museums  in  the  south. 

"A  large  vacant  area  appears  in  the  southwest.  The  straight 
lines  on  the  map,  radiating  from  a  point  in  the  south  part  of  this 
space,  show  the  shortest  distances  to  the  nearest  museums,  where  a 
naturalist  in  this  region  can  take  his  collection  for  study.  The 
indices  at  the  proximal  ends  of  these  lines  point  to  a  place  where 
the  great  museum  of  the  southwest  should  be  reared,  a  modern 
temple  of  science  on  the  Mediterranean  of  the  Occident.  Here  is 
an  exceptional  opportunity  for  the  exceptional  man.  Will  he 
see  it?" 


This  Part  I  was  published  in  advance 
sheets  in  December,  1912.  See  a  note 
at  the  end  of  the  volume  on  some  sub- 
sequent events  bearing  upon  the  subject 
of  Part  I. 


PART  H 
INTERNAL  ORGANIZATION  AND  ADMINISTRATION 

I.     PRELIMINARY 

The  preceding  part  of  this  study,  dealing  with  features  of  or- 
ganization for  which  the  state  government  is  responsible,  has  had 
special  reference  to  the  State  of  Texas.  On  this  second  part, 
treating  of  internal  organization  and  administration,  no  such 
limitation  was  imposed  by  practical  considerations;  and  the  sub- 
ject is  one  that  is  most  fittingly  treated  without  allusion  to  in- 
dividual institutions,  unless  such  particularity  be  required  for 
clearness.  No  special  reference  to  the  Texas  institutions,  there- 
fore, is  to  be  understood  in  the  discussion,  of  policies  and  prac- 
tices offered  in  this  division  of  the  study,  unless  the  reference 

is  explicit. 

Internal  Effects  of  Precarious  Support 

Internal  organization  and  administration  build  upon  the  struc- 
tural foundation  fixed  by  the  state  government.  The  two  most 
important  features  of  that  foundation  for  a  state  institution  of 
higher  education  have  been  shown  to  be  the  creation  of  a  gov- 
erning body  in  the  way  calculated  to  secure  the  most  competent 
and  faithful  executors  of  the  State's  general  purpose,  and  the 
establishment  of  an  adequate  and  secure  financial  basis. 

If  those  conditions  are  secured,  many  evil  consequences  of  their 
absence,  commonly  assigned  to  other  causes,  will  disappear,  thereby 
showing  the  true  origin.  The  main  causes  of  wasteful  duplication 
and  injurious  rivalry,  for  instance,  spring  from  precarious  sup- 
port, and  do  not  inhere  in  the  very  existence  of  two  institutions. 
If  the  State's  support  depends  entirely  upon  appropriations  by 
successive  legislatures,  the  consequences  of  rivalry  will,  indeed, 
•be  ruinous.  Also,  if  an  established  and  definitely  apportioned 


72  EFFECTS  OF  PRECARIOUS  SUPPORT 

tax  is  insufficient  for  ordinary  maintenance,  rivalry  will  be  in- 
jurious in  proportion  to  the  deficiency. 

The  worst  consequences  are  not  those  manifested  in  the  antag- 
onisms that  are  causing  open  shame  and  disaster  in  several 
States.  The  deep  injury  is  internal,  and  not  comprehended  by 
those  who  do  not  understand  the  inside  of  such  affairs.  The 
precarious  support  creates  tendencies  whereby,  in  the  long  run, 
governing  boards  and  administrators  become  so  engrossed  in  schem- 
ing for  appropiiations,  that  educational  and  scientific  values  are 
lost  sight  of,  or  are  obscured,  and  all  things  (work  and  persons) 
are  estimated  according  to  advertising  values.  Powerful  teaching, 
vigorous  research,  wisdom  and  courage  in  counsel  come  to  be  less 
and  le?s  appreciated.  Prominence,  authority,  top  salaries  go  to 
the  men  who  supply,  either  by  their  own  initiative  or  from  the 
catchy  nature  of  their  specialties,  the  most  newspaper  notices,  or 
the  most  'pull'  with  the  legislature,  or  the  most  popular  recogni- 
tion. Gradually  the  whole  morale  is  debased;  the  best  and  strong- 
est men  tend  to  leave;  and  at  last  the  faculty  settles  down  under 
the  dominance  of  its  least  worthy  members.  The  wisdom  and 
magnanimity  of  individuals  may  modify  temporarily  the  effocts 
of  the  general  tendency;  but  the  characteristic  result  has  been 
soberly  and  precisely  described.  Experience  in  the  United  States 
is  rife  with  wretched  examples,  usually  involving  a  state  university 
and  a  state  agricultural  college. 

There  are  two  genuine  remedies.  Either  would  instantly  remove 
the  fundamental  cause  of  some  evil  symptoms.  Troubles  induced 
entirely  by  that  cause  would  be  gradually  cured,  and  manifold  ills 
aggravated  by  it  would  be  abated. 

The  remedy  commonly  advocated  is  the  consolidation  of  the 
two  troubled  and  troublesome  institutions,  by  abolishing  the  agri- 
cultural college  and  instituting  (or  enlarging)  a  department  or 
college  of  agriculture  in  the  university.  It  is  probable  that  the 
majority  of  the  administrators  of  state  universities  in  this  country 
would  advise  the  absorption  of  every  state  agricultural  college  by 
the  university  of  the  State,  not  only  as  an  expedient  in  case  of 


EEMEDIES  73 

trouble,  but  as  theoretically  the  best  plan.  In  Europe  it  is  not 
deemed  best  to  put  the  technical  schools  in  the  universities.  The 
prevailing  opinion  of  administrators  in  this  country  is  largely 
held  without  comparison  with  any  alternative  remedy  for  the 
crying  evils  manifested  wherever  rivalry  in  the  face  of  precarious 
support  exists.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  alternative  remedy  has 
never  suggested  itself  to  most  advocates  of  consolidation. 

The  other  remedy  is  a  state  tax,  definitely  apportioned  by  the 
law  establishing  the  tax,  and  adequate  to  the  ordinary  support 
of  the  institutions  concerned.  Of  course,  each  institution  would 
have  to  present  from  time  to  time  some  special  need  to  the  leg- 
islature; but  the  ground  of  constant  and  injurious  rivalry  would 
be  removed  almost  as  surely  as  it  would  be  by  consolidation  if  the 
tax  be  sufficient  for  regular  needs.  Consolidation  without  a  tax  for 
maintenance  is  incomparably  less  advantageous  than  a  properly 
apportioned  tax,  because  the  paralyzing  element  of  uncertainty 
would  continue  in  full  force.  A  fair  comparison  of  the  two  reme- 
dies must  assume  equivalent  and  equally  stable  financial  support. 

In  totally  abolishing  rivalry,  it  is  not  impossible  that  some  ele- 
ments of  good  may  be  lost  along  with  the  injurious  rivalry.  Enor- 
mous size  does  not  make  an  institution  great.  Efficiency  is  cer- 
tainly not  proportional  to  size  without  limit.  Efficiency  puts  limi- 
tations upon  size  even  for  industrial  plants.  Almost  all  analogies 
(including  some  uses  of  the  word  "efficiency")  between  educa- 
tional work  and  manufacturing  are  grossly  misleading,  and  many 
of  them  are  pernicious ;  but  as  centralization  seems  to  be  peculiarly 
fascinating  for  those  prone  to  such  analogies,  it  is  not  amiss  to 
point  out  that  limitations  upon  advantageous  size  exist  in  the 
industrial  as  well  as  in  the  educational  sphere. 

More  directly  to  the  point  is  the  fact  that,  whereas  much  has 
been  said  about  the  advantages  of  a  university  atmosphere  for 
students  of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts,  a  great  deal  might 
be  said  of  possible  disadvantages  for  the  higher  learning,  both 
scientific  and  philosophical,  if  undergraduate  departments  are  mul- 


74  CO-OPERATION    WITH    COLLEGES 

tiplied  to  include  too  much  elementary  instruction  in  so-called 
utilitarian  or  practical  studies.  Various  evils  might  grow  from 
such  a  condition.  It  might  lead  to  a  neglect  and  discouragement 
of  the  college  of  arts  and  sciences,  both  in  faculty  counsels  and  in 
administrative  measures.  If  any  deep  cleavage  resulted  in  the 
general  faculty,  it  would  fall  under  the  sway  of  members  adroit  to 
fish  in  muddied  waters — one  of  the  worst  calamities  that  can 
befall  a  university.  If  the  administrative  policy  settled  down  to 
endeavors  to  ingratiate  the  institution  in  popular  favor  by  mere- 
tricious advertising  of  its  "practical"  departments,  all  that  is 
truly  most  useful  would  be  obscured,  and  the  essential  means  to 
good  ends  would  be  neglected. 

The  time  has  come  when  it  behooves  the  state  university  of 
an}7  populous  State  to  consider  carefully  the  matter  of  co-opera- 
tion with  colleges.  That  subject  has  been  briefly  treated  in  the 
first  part  of  this  study,  and  the  views  of  Dr.  Babcock,  Dean  Birge 
of  Wisconsin,  and  President  Pritchett,  there  presented,  are 
here  recalled.  It  is  to  be  added  in  this  connection  that  all 
potential  universities*  ought  to  devote  very  careful  attention  to 
developing  graduate  schools  suitable  to  their  resources  of  men  and 
means  and  their  respective  localities.  The  great  and  fruitful 
services  of  the  German  universities  to  the  German  nation  are 
often  described  to  excite  appreciation  of  an  American  university, 
in  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  it  is  only  the  graduate  department 
of  the  American  university  that  does  or  attempts  to  do  the  charac- 
teristic work  of  a  German  university.  Every  state  university 
undoubtedly  ought  to  offer  facilities  for  continuing  the  study  of 
agriculture  after  graduation  from  an  agricultural  college;  but 
more  than  the  mere  vote  of  contemporary  university  presidents 
is  requisite  to  prove  that  every  state  university  should  include  the 
agricultural  college  of  its  State. 


*0ther  so-called  universities  ought  to  cease  from  deceptive  pretensions 
by  making  their  names  and  administration  fit  the  true  condition,  and  thus 
become  useful  colleges  instead  of  counterfeit  universities. 


DIFFICULTIES   IN   CONSOLIDATION  75 

In  short,  the  more  profoundly  and  clearly  one  understands  all 
sides  of  the  question  and  its  distant  connections,  the  less  'cock 
sure'  he  will  be  which  of  the  two  possible  remedies  for  the  evils 
engendered  by  the  precarious  support  of  two  state  institutions  is 
theoretically  the  best.     But  the  margin  of  abstract  preferability, 
let  it  lie  as  it  may,  is  probably  negligible  in  comparison  with  the 
weight  that  belongs  to  the  extraneous  conditions   defining  each 
concrete  case.     The  question,  therefore,  need  not  be  decided  ab- 
stractly.    The  practical  question  in  undertaking  to  remedy  those 
evils,  in  any  particular  case,  resolves  itself  into  the  comparative 
feasibility  of  a  tax  apportioned  in  fixed  parts  sufficient  for  regu- 
lar needs,  or  of  consolidation  with  an  adequate  tax  for  the  one 
institution. 

If  the  institutions  suffering  from  the  cumulative  effects  of  pre- 
carious support  have  attained  great  size  and  deeply  rooted  his- 
torical associations,  it  ought  to  be  possible,  through  a  supreme 
effort  on  the  part  of  magnanimous  counsellors,  to  secure  their 
agreement  to  a  proper  apportionment  of  an  adequate  state  tax, 
and  their  united  support  of  the  legislative  program  necessary  for 
the  establishment  of  such  a  tax.     But  if  inveterate  animosities, 
fixed  bias  of  public  opinion,  or  legislative  confusion,  offer  insur- 
mountable obstacles  to  a  suitably  apportioned  tax,  and  if  con- 
solidation with  stable  support  appears  to  be  obtainable,  similar 
effort  may  be  wisely  exerted  to  apply  the  alternative  remedy.    The 
question  of  feasibility  ought  to  be  very  carefully  considered.     Ad- 
ditional administrative  difficulties  must  be  met  by  the  consolidated 
institution.     Some  of  those  difficulties  have  been  indicated,  others 
of  a  technical  nature  would  arise.     For  instance,  a  paltry  ten- 
dency to  make  all  rules  and  regulations  uniform  for  all  depart- 
ments is  springing  up  under  far  less  trying  conditions;  ignor- 
ance, timidity,  and  indolence  combine  to  prevent  a  proper  differ- 
entiation for  different  departments,  and  lead  to  regulations  which 
in  their  compromised  uniformity  fit  none.     Many  indications  of 
such  incapacity  to  deal  with  growing  size  and  complexity  are  ob- 


A   NEEDED   SERVICE 

vious  to  any  competent  observer.  Yet  it  lies  within  the  power 
of  wise  administration  to  prevent  or  to  surmount  such  difficulties, 
whereas  the  evils  of  rivalry  under  precarious  support  are  prac- 
tically inevitable. 

A  central  board  of  control,  placed  over  subordinated  governing 
boards,  has  been  shown  to  be  worse  than  inexpedient.  Instead  of 
curing  the  evils  in  question,  such  a  board  of  control  would  ag- 
gravate them.  That  device  is  fundamentally  erroneous.  It  is  a 
false  remedy,  and  will  never  under  any  circumstances,  I  venture 
to  say,  prove  advantageous. 

A  Needed  Service 

Within  the  compass  of  the  following  chapters  it  will  not  be 
practicable  to  consider  such  details  as  the  courses*  of  study,  to  be 
offered  in  any  department,  or  the  departments  to  be  maintained  in 


*Such  terms  are  used  in  this  study  in  accordance  with  the  nomenclature 
adopted  in  1909  and  1910  by  the  National  Association  of  State  Univer- 
sities in  the  United  States  of  America,  as  follows: 

"1.  That  the  term  department  be  restricted  to  the  various  subjects 
taught  in  the  university;  as  for  instance,  the  department  of  Latin,  depart- 
ment of  mathematics,  department  of  physics,  etc. 

"2.  That  the  term  course  be  restricted  to  the  subdivisions  of  a  subject; 
as  for  instance,  course  1  in  English. 

"3.  That  the  term  college  be  restricted  to  a  part  of  the  university,  the 
standard  of  admission  to  which  is  the  equivalent  of  that  required  by  the 
Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching,  and  which  offers 
instruction  leading  to  a  first  degree  in  arts,  letters,  or  sciences. 

"4.  That  the  term  school  be  restricted  to  a  part  of  the  university,  the 
standard  of  admission  to  which  is  not  less  than  the  equivalent  of  two 
years'  work  in  the  college,  and  which  offers  instruction  of  not  less  than 
two  years  duration  leading  to  a  technical  or  professional  degree. 

"5.  That  the  term  group  be  restricted  to  a  combination  of  related 
subjects. 

"6.  That  the  term  curriculum  be  restricted  to  a  combination  of  courses 
leading  to  a  degree. 

"7.  That  the  term  division  be  assigned  a  loose  meaning  to  indicate 
groupings  of  the  different  branches  of  a  university  organization,  or 
branches  which  do  not  adapt  themselves  to  classification  under  the  above 
terms;  as  for  instance,  extension  division,  graduate  school,  etc." 


A   NEEDED    SERVICE  77 

any  school  or  college.  The  available  space  will  be  devoted  to  some 
general  features  of  organization  and  administration  that  are  funda- 
mental or  most  vital.  No  individual  would  be  competent  to  treat 
expertly  the  inner  sphere  of  every  department.  Indeed,  the  work 
of  any  one  department  would  be  most  helpfully  presented  in  a  co-^ 
operative  discussion  by  a  number  of  experienced  specialists  whose 
attainments  included,  besides  their  expert  skill,  philosophical  com- 
prehension of  the  place  of  their  specialty  in  the  whole  body  of 
the  intellectual  life  of  mankind,  and  of  the  best  practical  connec- 
tions for  teaching  purposes  of  their  own  with  other  departments. 
Of  course,  a  program  thus  prepared  would  not  fit  the  different 
resources  of  different  institutions.  It  would  not  exactly  fit  any 
particular  case;  but,  if  ably  prepared,  it  would  be  highly  service- 
able. 

A  most  important  service  would  be  rendered  by  agencies  able 
to  secure  competent  co-operation,  if  they  promptly  took  steps  to 
have  prepared  and  published  ideal  programs  of  courses  for  stand- 
ard departments  and  organized  designs  for  the  reciprocal  rela- 
tions of  such  departments  and  their  relations  with  the  different 
schools  of  a  comprehensive  university.  There  could  be  no  perma- 
nence for  the  details  of  such  outlines;  but  truly  constructive 
studies  of  those  essential  problems  would  be  very  useful.  They 
would  not  only  offer  new  and  definite  suggestions  for  good  courses 
and  correlations,  but  would  lead  to  the  discarding  of  many  ill 
considered  courses  and  to  the  correction  of  much  ill  arranged 
work.  Eich  and  critical  plans  of  a  general  character  would  have 
no  tendency  to  induce  deadening  uniformity;  on  the  contrary, 
they  would  encourage  discriminating  adaptations  to  particular 
conditions.  Servile  imitation  of  the  practice  (itself  probably  hap- 
hazard) of  some  prominent  institution,  and  rash  ventures  of  self- 
sufficiency  would  be  equally  restrained.  The  Association  of  Amer- 
ican Universities,  the  National  Association  of  State  Universities, 
and  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching 
would  do  a  valuable  work,  if  each  of  them  undertook  to  provide  a 


78  A   NEEDED   SERVICE 

series  of  such  monographs.  The  ability  for  constructive  thought 
is  rare,  and  the  conjunction  of  that  ability  and  such  an  oppor- 
tunity for  its  suitable  exercise  is  still  rarer.  The  great  agencies 
mentioned  are  in  advantageous  positions  for  finding  and  com- 
missioning men  in  each  department  who  possess,  in  addition  to 
expertness  in  that  specialty,  the  philosophical  attainments  and 
constructive  powers  required  for  genuinely  constructive  work  of 
such  a  nature.  This  fundamental  matter  has  been  abandoned 
hitherto  sometimes  to  perfunctory  decisions  of  the  faculty,  some- 
times to  off-hand  debates  and  adoptions  by  accidental  majorities. 

The  general  problems  of  medical  education,  and  the  existing 
status  of  medical  schools  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  and 
in  Europe,  including  some  details  concerning  courses  of  instruc- 
tion, have  already  been  treated  in  the  epoch  making  reports 
of  Mr.  Abraham  Flexner,  issued  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for 
the  Advancement  of  Teaching,  with  valuable  introductions  by 
President  Pritchett.*  In  a  powerful  address  on  "Medical  Educa- 
tion in  the  South,"  delivered  in  March,  1912,  before  the  American 
Medical  Association,  President  E.  B.  Craighead  (under  whose 
administration  the  medical  school  of  the  Tulane  University  of 
Louisiana  made  such  notable  advances,  now  President  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Montana)  indicated  the  widespread  need  for  a  more 
diligent  study  of  Mr.  Flexner's  1910  report  than  it  has  yet  re- 
ceived. "One  may  venture  to  doubt,"  he  said,  "whether  one 
physician  in  ten,  whether  even  any  large  part  of  the  professors 
of  our  medical  schools  or  members  of  health  boards,  ever  made  a 
careful  study  of  this  illuminating  report  on  medical  education, 
deubtless  the  ablest  ever  issued  in  this  or  in  any  other  country. 
If  any  large  part  of  the  medical  fraternity  had  read  its  cold, 
bare,  merciless  statements,  would  not  they  themselves  have  called 
for  the  reorganization  of  medical  education  ?" 


*Medical  Education  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  Bulletin  Number 
Four,  1910;   Medical  Education  in  Europe,  Bulletin  Number  Six,   1912. 


METHOD   OP   PRESENTATION  79 

Method  of  Presentation. 

The  following  chapters  treat  some  important  problems  which 
appear  to  present  serious  difficulties  to  American  universities  and 
colleges.  The  essential  nature  and  issues  of  each  problem,  as  con- 
ceived by  the  writer,  will  be  indicated,  and  policies  and  measures 
deemed  to  be  appropriate  will  be  suggested.  The  reader  will 
judge  the  former  according  to  his  own  experience  and  insight; 
the  latter  he  must  judge  by  his  wisdom.  The  matters  dealt  with 
are  of  an  order  in  which  demonstration  is  not  possible.  In  the 
main,  the  arguments  necessarily  appeal  to  judgments  of  the  prac- 
tical reason,  which  constitute  indeed  a  test  of  character  but  can 
not  compel  logical  assent. 

Failure  to  discriminate  spheres  for  demonstrative  proof  and 
spheres  for  wisdom  in  judgments,  is  a  common  cause  of  confused 
action.  And  it  may  be  well  to  mention  in  this  connection  the 
more  vulgar  error  of  attempting  to  decide  any  question  involving 
scientific  or  philosophical  truth  by  a  vote — whether  the  voting 
be  by  "authorities"  or  by  a  count  of  all  noses.  Of  course,  it  be- 
hooves a  man  who  ventures  to  offer  counsel,  to  observe  the  va- 
rious practices  of  those  engaged  in  the  business  considered,  and 
to  discuss  all  subjects  of  investigation  with  many  whose  posi- 
tions have  offered  opportunity  for  pertinent  experience,  and  to  read 
extensively  the  literature  of  the  subjects.  But  when  he  presents 
the  results  of  proper  preparation  in  such  matters  as  are  here  in 
question,  he  will  do  the  best  that  can  be  done  if  the  essential  con- 
ditions are  stated,  and  the  attitude  or  course  of  action  deemed 
most  suitable  is  proposed.  The  grounds  for  every  conclusion 
must  be  indicated  (otherwise  the  question  would  not  be  fully  pre- 
sented), but,  in  general,  the  reasons  must  stand  upon  their  own 
merits  independent  of  authority.  The  appeal  is  to  principles, 
which  the  reader  must  be  left  to  acknowledge  or  reject.  In  some 
particulars  the  proper  ground  for  a  wise  conclusion  may  be  the 
weight  of  expert  opinion,  and  in  them  expert  opinion  should  be 


80  METHOD   OF   PRESENTATION 

adduced  and  weighed;  but  no  large  and  vital  policy  concerning 
the  organization  and  administration  of  a  university  is  of  such  a 
nature. 

There  are  various  technical  questions  with  which  college  ad- 
ministration is  concerned  that  could  be  genuinely  answered  by 
adequate  statistics.  Some  important  psychological  facts,  for  in- 
stance, can  be  determined  only  by  statistical  methods.  Frequent 
attempts,  however,  have  been  made  in  recent  years  to  answer  by 
statistics  questions  whose  true  answers  are  totally  independent 
of  the  results  offered  in  evidence,  or  of  any  other  numerical  facts. 
All  facts  are  valuable  in  proper  relations;  but  a  fact  is  not  the 
truth  for  a  mind  that  does  not  comprehend  its  true  relations. 
Statistical  investigations  could  not  supply  more  than  superfluous 
support  in  the  following  discussions,  and  might  obscure  valid 
and  sufficient  grounds  by  appealing  to  doubtful  facts  or  incon- 
clusive reasons. 

The  limited  space  for  the  present  study  has  been  reserved  for 
fundamental  and  vital  matters  which  ought  to  be  deeply  pon- 
dered by  every  one  who  takes  any  part  in  the  government  or  ad- 
ministration of  an  institution  of  higher  education.  Wise  con- 
clusions are  to  be  reached,  and  beneficial  courses  of  action  will  be 
followed,  only  by  those  who  frame  by  their  own  judgments  a  true 
scale  of  values  and  clear  aims,  and  who  choose  means  well  adapted 
to  good  ends  held  constantly  in  view. 

One  example  must  suffice,  if  any  be  needed,  to  illustrate  the 
propriety  of  these  remarks.  Suppose  some  practice  were  con- 
demned on  the  ground  that  it  tended  to  drive  or  keep  out  of  the 
service  of  the  institution  teachers  of  great  ability  and  high  de- 
votion. If  the  fact  of  that  tendency  of  the  practice  is  clear,  the 
argument  is  complete.  Its  premise — that  the  paramount  obliga- 
tion of  a  teaching  institution  is  to  get  and  keep  good  teachers,  is 
equally  cogent  by  whomsoever  stated.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
expert  opinion.  Still  less  is  it  a  question  of  statistics.  I  do  not 
strengthen  the  principle  appreciably  by  quoting  an  expert  who, 


METHOD   OF   PRESENTATION  81 

in  speaking  of  the  vision  and  endeavors  of  the  Organization  under 
whose  auspices  this  study  has  been  made,  wrote:     "I  trust  you 
will  be  able  to  make  the  conditions  in  your  University  favorable 
to  the  residence  thereat  of  great  men  worthy  of  a  great  State.    The 
standing  of  a  university  is  determined  by  the  eminence  of  its 
professors  and  by  the  freedom  for  learning  and  teaching  given  to 
these  professors  and  to  their  students/'     That  is  the  judgment  of 
President  Woodward  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington. 
But  the  question  is  not  to  be  settled  by  authority.     A.  man  who 
does  not  see  the  principle  for  himself  can  not  really  understand 
its  statement  by  another.     In  short,  it  is  a  matter  of  character. 
As   for   statistics,   they,    alas,    would    disprove    the   principle,    if 
they  could  impose  at  all.     On   all  sides  the  principle  appealed 
to     is    condemned     by     prevalent     practice.     No     questionnaire 
is    needed;  actions     speak    louder    than    words.       Statistically, 
buildings,    are    often   held    to    be    more    important    than    teach- 
ers,— or    popular    applause    of    certain    subjects    of    instruction, 
or  the  nominal  designs  of  outspreading  curricula.     Surely  it  must 
be  upon  such  grounds,  and  not  because  of  great  teachers,  that 
some   universities   advertise   "the  highest   educational   facilities/' 
Persistent  policies  of  the  governing  boards  and  administrators  of 
many   universities   possessing  ample  means   for  better   practices, 
manifestly  deny  our  premise.    One  statistical  result  might,   in- 
deed, agree  with  the  principle  which  we  prefer  to  let  stand  on 
its  own  luminous  truth.     The  majority  of  ingenuous  youth  prob- 
ably do  see  its  truth.     At  least,  Mr.  Cooper  reports  in  his  recent 
book,   Why   Go   to  College:     "Of   one  hundred   graduates   whom 
I  asked  the  question,  'What  do  you  consider  to  be  the  most  valu- 
able thing  in  your  college  course?'  eighty-six  said,  substantially: 
'Personal   contact   with   a  great  teacher.' ';      This   is   gratifying, 
though  not  surprising  to  those  who  know  how  many  young  men 
keep  their  native  good  sense  unsophisticated  by  the  example  and 
precept  of  their  elders.     But  the  principle  is  not  really  strength- 
ened by  such  testimony.     In  the  first  place,  if  Mr.  Cooper  were 


82  METHOD   OF   PRESENTATION 

to  extend  his  inquiry  to  a  thousand,  his  eighty-six  per  centum  of 
enlightened  answers  would  probably  be  much  reduced,  and  cer- 
tainly so  if  he  inquired  of  ten  thousand.  In  short  the  truth  of  the 
matter,  being  quite  independent  of  majority  opinions,  can  neither 
be  proved  nor  discredited  by  a  vote.  The  truth  would  remain  the 
same,  if  only  six  instead  of  eighty-six  per  centum  of  the  young  men 
had  seen  it. 

The  quotations  occurring  in  the  discussions  here  presented  are 
not  offered  as  settling  any  point  by  authority.  I  have  merely 
preferred  to  adopt  the  words  of  others  whenever  I  have  recalled 
(and  could  locate)  an  apposite  statement  of  a  matter  the  reader 
should  consider,  in  any  of  the  hundreds  of  books  and  articles 
that  have  been  perused  in  order  to  extend  as  far  as  possible  my 
previous  experience  and  reflection.  Many  a  brief  remark,  it  may 
be  added,  is  the  outcome  of  an  examination  of  much  published 
material,  or  of  consultations  and  observations  obtained  by  trav- 
eling long  distances.  No  'source'  or  'authority/  however,  has 
been  cited  to  give  the  air  of  deep  'research'  supposed  by  some  to 
be  bestowed  by  that  device.  The  aim  has  been  to  make  a  con- 
secutive and  condensed  discourse,  impersonally  unified, — to  be 
impersonally  judged. 

The  inherent  propriety  of  this  method  of  presentation  was  once 
illustrated  in  a  quaint  comparison  by  a  great  thinker  to  whom 
physicists  are  today  returning  for  some  of  the  fundamental  state- 
ments of  their  science:  "If  discussing  a  difficult  problem,"  said 
Gallileo,  "were  like  carrying  a  weight,  then  since  several  horses 
will  carry  more  sacks  of  corn  than  one  alone,  I  would  agree  that 
many  reasoners  avail  more  than  one;  but  discoursing  is  like 
coursing,  and  not  like  carrying;  and  one  barb  by  himself  will 
run  faster  than  a  thousand  Friesland  horses."  It  would  be  a 
gross  misunderstanding  to  regard  such  a  presentation  as  dogmat- 
ically announcing  egotistical  judgments;  on  the  contrary,  the  "one 
reasoner"  the  present  writer  has  in  view  is  the  reader.  As  I  have 
said,  beneficial  courses  of  action  will  be  followed  only  by  those 


METHOD   OF   PRESENTATION  83 

who  frame  by  their  own  judgments  a  true  scale  of  values  and 
clear  aims,  and  who  choose  means  well  adapted  to  good  ends  held 
constantly  in  view. 

It  is  also  to  be  understood  that  the  readers  for  whom  the  "dis- 
cc-ursing"  here  submitted  is  mainly  intended,  are  persons  who 
are  undertaking  in  some  capacity  to  shape  the  destiny  of  insti- 
tutions of  higher  education, — governors  of  States,  legislators,  mem- 
bers of  commissions  for  investigation  or  for  control,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  governing  boards,  the  administrative  officers,  and  the 
faculties  of  universities  and  colleges.  Such  men  already  know,  or 
only  by  neglect  of  responsibility  fail  to  know,  the  facts  referred 
to;  and  the  principles  of  true  expediency,  upon  which  courses 
of  action  may  be  chosen  for  dealing  with  the  facts,  necessarily 
stand  on  their  own  powers  of  appeal.  The  need  for  sincerity 
in  all  announcements  does  not  appeal  to  the  disingenuous;  ex- 
cellence is  not  desired  by  admirers  of  uniformity;  distinctions  of 
worth  are  secretly  hated  by  the  leveler;  the  value  of  self-control 
does  not  restrain  fanatics  and  petty  despots  from  violating  sa- 
cred rights  of  personality;  and  vindictive  or  cowardly  egotism  is 
blind  to  justice.  By  the  lover  of  darkness  light  is  not  preferred. 
For  such  antagonisms  there  is  no  present  help.  But  there  must  be 
many  men  who  are  unconsciously  violating  in  educational  affairs 
principles  that  they  acknowledge  abstractly.  If  they  should  read 
this  book,  they  would  see  the  relations  of  such  principles  to  many 
injurious  policies  which  they  have  thoughtlessly  adopted  or  are 
^upinelv  permitting.  It  is  in  the  hope  that  it  might  find  some 
readers  among  the  men  who  assume  legislative  or  professional  re- 
sponsibility in  the  work  of  higher  education,  that  the  book 
is  made.  There  are  others,  however,  to  whom  the  writer  hopes 
it  may  also  be  serviceable.  Interest  in  universities  and  colleges 
is  widespread.  Editorial  writers  readily  praise  almost  anything 
proposed  in  the  name  of  education.  More  discrimination  would 
greatly  enhance  the  value  of  this  sincere  cordiality.  Especially, 
I  have  fondly  hoped  that  some  readers  might  be  found  among  the 


84  METHOD   OF   PRESENTATION 

young  men  for  whose  instruction  colleges  and  universities  are 
maintained.  University  students  are  competent  and  advantage- 
ously situated  to  form,  and  ought  to  take  thought  to  form  en- 
lightened judgments  concerning  the  features  of  college  govern- 
ment and  life  and  work  that  are  tests  of  good  organization  and 
administration.  It  is  of  great  importance  to  the  commonwealth 
that  the  students  of  today  should  form  sound  judgments  in  such 
matters,  in  order  that  the  influence  of  the  full-grown  men  may 
be  wisely  exercised  tomorrow.  That  our  better  universities  and 
colleges  (in  spite  of  governmental  abuses,  errors  of  teachers,  and 
foibles  of  the  taught)  are  light-giving  and  strength-giving  in- 
stitutions, is  the  belief  in  which  these  studies  are  submitted  for 
such  consideration  as  they  may  deserve. 


II.     THE  GOVERNING  BOARD 

The  responsible  authorities  of  the  American  state  university 
are  its  board  of  regents  (or  trustees),  an  executive  officer  of  that 
board,  and  the  faculty.  The  proper  function  of  each  should  be 
determined  from  within,  through  long  experience,  guided  by  knowl- 
edge of  the  general  principles  applicable  to  the  administration  of 
any  great  and  complex  enterprise:  for  instance,  the  principle 
bodies  should  legislate,  individuals  execute.  Beyond  such  broad 
distinctions  the  State  should  not  attempt  to  circumscribe  or  di- 
rect by  statutory  provisions  the  activities  of  the  institution's  gov- 
ernmental agencies. 

This  form  of  government  has  been  evolved  not  arbitrarily,  but 
to  comport  with  practical  conditions  and  with  ideas  and  purposes 
of  higher  education  that  have  been  the  outgrowth  of  the  com- 
pounding of  a  new  nation.  The  typical  American  university  has 
come  to  consist  of  a  college,  professional  schools,  technical  schools, 
graduate  departments,  divisions  of  research,  and  extension  divi- 
sions,— naming  its  expanding  spheres  in  the  order  of  acquisition. 
Speaking  of  "The  American  university,  late  born  in  fact  thougfi 
not  in  name,"  President  Mezes  of  the  University  of  Texas  thus 
describes  some  of  the  new  ideals : 

"Within  the  last  half  century,  or  perhaps  even  within  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  there  has  arisen  a  new  conception  of  the  university  as  the 
head  of  the  educational  system  of  the  whole  people,  not  of  a  caste  or  class. 
The  change  is  profound.  The  old  ideals  are  not  thrown  away;  the  lawyer, 
the  doctor,  the  teacher,  may  secure  from  the  state  university  of  today  a 
wider  and  sounder  training  than  ever  in  the  past,  and  the  most  precious 
fruit  and  ambition  of  research  is  still  the  discovery  of  new  truth.  But 
to  the  work  of  the  past  is  added  now  the  training  of  leaders  in  almost 
all  the  lines  of  human  activity.  Ezra  Cornell  is  said  to  have  hoped  that 
the  new  institution  he  was  founding  might  be  a  place  where  anybody,  man 
or  woman,  might  learn  to  do  anything  that  was  worth  doing.  Out  of  the 
training  of  students  in  manifold  pursuits  on  the  campus  came  the  idea 


86  EXPANDING  PURPOSES 

that  the  university  should  carry  its  teaching  to  the  eager  among  the  people 
at  home  who  could  not  lay  aside  their  occupations  for  exclusive  study. 
To  this  noble  conception  was  added  the  ideal  of  offering  to  the  people  the 
benefits  of  the  skill,  knowledge,  and  power  accumulated  in  the  faculty  and 
buildings  and  collections  of  the  university.  The  university  should  be  in 
full  truth  the  head  of  the  State's  educational  system,  not  merely  in  the 
training  of  citizens,  not  merely  in  directing  but  in  drawing  out  the  good 
that  is  in  the  commonwealth  as  a  whole,  in  the  people,  in  all  the  people 
first,  and  in  the  land,  too,  with  the  aim  ever  to  hand  down  to  posterity 
a  nobler  people  and  a  land  better  fitted  to  live  in." 

The  a//-including  conception  of  a  university's  work  and  aims — 
voiced  in  sweeping  phrases  more  in  the  West  than  in  the  East — 
requires,  of  course,  many  limitations.  A  university  can  not  ever 
really  become  a  place  where  anybody  can  learn  to  do  anything  worth 
doing.  Some  things  should  be  left  to  distinct  teaching  insti- 
tutions, some  must  be  left  to  other  agencies.  The  vast  majority 
of  men  and  women  cannot  be  immediately  instructed  by  uni- 
versities. They  are  benefited  indirectly;  for  instance,  by  the 
services  of  those  who  learn  in  universities  to  render  many  in- 
dispensable services,  and  through  the  advancement  of  knowledge 
and  the  consequent  extension  of  human  ability  to  utilize  natural 
resources  and  forces  and  to  resist  nature's  antagonisms.  Pro- 
fessor E.  D.  Perry  (in  No.  6  of  "Monographs  on  Education  in 
the  United  States,"  edited  by  Nicholas  Murray  Butler)  remarks: 

"The  brilliant  history  of  Cornell  University  is  chiefly  due  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  men  who  have  seen  what  limitations  should  be  put  upon  .  .  . 
the  avowed  purpose  of  Ezra  Cornell:  I  would  found  an  institution  where 
any  person  may  find  instruction  in  any  study.  .  .  .  The  purpose  of 
Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University  is  declared  to  be:  To  fit  young  persons 
for  success  in  life.  An  admirable  purpose,  no  doubt,  but  one  which  the 
university  must  share  in  common  with  many  other  institutions.  .  .  . 
As  a  whole,  American  universities  seem  to  be  trying  to  do  too  many 
things,  generally  with  an  altogether  inadequate  equipment  of  instructors." 

The  new  idea  may  be  stated  less  emotionally,  but  more  simply 
and  more  analytically:  It  consists  essentially  in  an  expansion  of 


THE  AMERICAN  SYSTEM  87 

the  duties  of  institutions  of  higher  education  to  include  a  dissem- 
ination of  the  results  of  science  where  they  may  be  utilized  in 
private  life  and  industry,  or  applied  to  guide  public  enterprises 
and  to  protect  the  welfare  of  society.  To  the  function  and  duties 
•of  achieving  and  transmitting  knowledge,  and,  as  it  were,  storing 
it  in  repositories  of  learning,  there  has  thus  been  added  an  obli- 
gation to  cause  those  stores  to  be  utilized  as  widely  as  possible. 
For  example,  far  more  is  now  known  in  scientific  ways  about  the 
cultivation  and  conservation  of  the  soil  and  the  breeding  of  plants 
and  animals,  than  farmers  will  be  led,  within  many  years,  to  make 
use  of;  or,  more  is  now  known  of  preventive  medicine  and  public 
hygiene  than  society  will  properly  apply  within  long  years  to 
come.  And  the  aim  is  to  offer  all  these  services — the  old  and  the 
new — free  of  cost  to  the  recipients. 

It  will  become  evident  in  any  candid  study  of  existing  condi- 
tions that  the  pervading  difficulty  in  the  administration  of  such 
boundless  schemes  is  to  prevent  the  sacrifice  of  quality  to  quan- 
tity.* 'The  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number'  is  a  valid  maxim 
if  proper  emphasis  be  kept  on  the  good;  but  if  "good"  be  slurred 
and  "number"  emphasized,  the  number  receiving  may  be  great 
tut  that  which  is  given  is  likely  to  be  bad.  An  educational  insti- 
tution should  offer,  in  its  proper  sphere,  as  much  good  as  it  can, 
and  should  call  as  many  as  it  can  serve  therewith;  but  it  is  better 
to  give  bread  to  as  many  as  your  bread  will  supply,  than  to  give 
stones  or  straw  to  any  number — the  more  the  worse. 

Reasons  for  the  Essential  Features  of  the  American  System. 

The  complexity  of  the  demands,  and  the  unparalleled  volume 
of  public  money  put  into  the  foundation  and  maintenance  of 
American  universities  within  the  last  thirty  years,  doubtless  jus- 
tify a  form  of  government  unknown  in  the  Old  World.  But  the 


*Cf.     President  Bryan's  statement  on  page  46  and  the  comment  follow- 
ing it. 


88  THE  AMERICAN  SYSTEM 

American  plan  was  instituted  before  the  present  new  ideas  pre- 
vailed. It  arose  and  spread,  I  believe,  primarily  and  mainly  for 
four  reasons,  two  of  them  being  of  a  general  societal  character, 
and  two  of  a  technical  nature:  (1)  Under  the  political  systems 
of  the  weak  States  forming  the  new  federated  nation,  it  was  evi- 
dent that  colleges  should  not  be  managed  either  by  legislatures  or 
by  political  officers.  The  board  of  trustees  represents  the  state 
government  for  state  universities.  (2)  The  usual  methods  for 
the  corporate  management  of  other  affairs  were  adopted  for  edu- 
cational foundations  of  every  sort;  and  the  plan,  begun  with  the 
so-called  colleges  and  universities  of  earlier  days,  persisted  when 
universities,  in  a  more  legitimate  sense  of  the  word,  began  to  de- 
velop. But  that  persistence  was  not  merely  due  to  historical  con- 
tinuity. There  are  two  technical  reasons  not  recognized  by  those 
who  bewail  the  existence  of  regents  and  presidents  and  lament 
that  our  universities  are  not  governed  like  the  German  or  English 
universities:  (1)  the  inclusion  of  the  last  three  or  four  years  of 
the  European  secondary  schools  in  the  American  university; 
and  (2)  the  teacher  in  the  American  university  is  paid  entirely 
by  salary,  and  does  not  receive  remuneration  from  the  fees  of 
voluntary  students  who  select  him  in  preference  to  competitors. 
If  one  will  reflect  on  the  conditions  involved  in  the  two  facts 
last  stated,  he  will  see  many  consequences  which  would  render  the 
"democratic"  government  of  the  German  university  impracticable 
for  the  American  institution.  [See  page  213.] 

In  the  chorus  of  complaints  from  members  of  our  faculties 
which  has  filled  current  journals  for  several  years,  there  have  been 
pointed  out  indeed  many  abuses  perpetrated  by  presidents  and 
by  regents;  but  the  majority  of  the  compainants  fail  to  take  into- 

account  the  conditions  that  justify  the  autonomy  of  the  German 
faculties.  If  the  American  university  were  dealing  mainly  with 
what  we  term  post-graduate  work,  manned  by  scholars  who  met 
the  professional  competition  of  their  colleagues  disdaining  any 
compulsion  upon  students  to  attend  their  own  instead  of  another's 


A  SUGGESTION  OF  CAUTION  89 

lectures,  and  receiving  a  large  part  of  their  remuneration  from 
the  fees  of  voluntary  students, — then  it  might  be  admitted  that 
there  need  be  no  regents  and  president  to  assist  such  a  faculty  in 
governing    the    institution.      But    one    cannot    have    his    cake 
and     eat    it;    and     I     would     offer    a    suggestion    of     caution 
to    those    who    seek    to    abolish    the    present    plan    of    govern- 
ment.      We  never     hear     longings     for     the     French     system; 
yet,  if  the  would-be  destroyers  of  the  American  plan  should  pre- 
vail, I  believe  it  would  lead  to  the   French  system, — an  auto- 
cratic governmental  bureaucracy  directing  everything  to  minute 
details,  a  martinet,   'red  tape'   civil  service, — and  the  departure 
of  the  best  men  of  science  from  the  state  universities  to  academies 
and  private  activities,*  or  to  the  endowed  universities  who  would 
stand  against  the  change.     How  would  the  American  professors 
like  to  get  both  their  first  places  and  subsequent  advancements 
by  competitive  examinations?     How  would  they  like  to   be   as- 
signed to  teach  anything,  anywhere,  under  the  supposition  that 
one  who  has  passed  the  great  examination   of   the  minister  of 
education  is  qualified  to  teach  everything  the   universities  have 
any  business  with?    But  such  has  been  the  French  system,  since 
extreme   notions,    such   as   Eousseau's   "contrat   social"    spawned 
among  a  people  in  whom  the  races  of  Southern  Europe  predomi- 
nated.    Perhaps  it  is  from  such  developments  that  university  re- 
gents and  presidents  preserve   our  higher  education.     Would   it 
not  be  better  to  strive  to  lead  them  to  correct  certain  errors  of 
their  ways,  than  to  try  to  abolish  them  ? 

I  do  not  know  of  any  one  else  who  has  called  attention  to  the 
risk  I  have  indicated,  but  it  seems  to  me  worthy  of  consideration. 
Consider  it  in  connection  with  two  prevailing  tendencies — the 
downward  shifting  of  the  plane  of  greatest  political  power  in  the 


*A  few  of  the  great  scholars  and  scientific  investigators,  members  of  the 
academies  of  the  Institut  de  France,  are  loosely  connected  with  the  College 
de  France  or  with  the  Sorbonne, — merely  giving  public  lectures  that  any 
one  may  attend,  not  regular  teachers  of  the  students. 


90  THE  AMERICAN  SYSTEM 

body  politic,  and  the  predominance  in  immigration  and  birth  rate 
in  this  country  of  a  swarthy  South-European  proletariat.  Reflect 
that  it  has  been  peoples  led  and  inspired  by  the  white  skinned 
(more  or  less  blue  eyed)  races  of  Northern  and  Central  Europe 
who  have  mainly  developed  the  science  of  the  Occident  and  given 
love  of  freedom  and  individual  responsibility  to  the  Western  World. 
All  sorts  of  minds  develop  in  nearly  every  race,  and  I  do  not 
mean  to  put  too  much  biological  significance  into  human  history; 
but  the  influences  referred  to  are  real  whether  their  causes  be 
genetic  or  environmental.  If  masses  prone  to  admire  uniformity 
and  approve  regimentation,  with  little  respect  for  individuality, 
impatient  of  processes  of  growth,  and  without  restraint  in  estab- 
lishing as  fixed  dogmas  in  State  or  Church  the  passions  of  the 
moment,  should  gain  ascendency, — what  then?  Might  we  not 
expect  to  see  popular  ideas  recklessly  imposed  by  law  in  every 
sphere?  If  they  tamper  with  the  government  of  educational 
institutions,  will  they  not  substitute  a  code  of  minute  mechani- 
cal regulations  administered  by  political  officials?  The  advent 
of  some  such  things  is  acclaimed  by  many  who,  out  of  the  other 
side  of  their  mouths,  uphold  contradictory  aims  and  desires.  The 
question  at  bottom  is  a  matter  of  choice,  of  taste,  not  to  be  set- 
tled by  demonstrative  argument;  but  one  ought  not  to  pigeon- 
hole in  his  mind  contradictory  opinions.  He  may  like  a  me- 
chanical, civil-service  administration  of  higher  education;  but  let 
him  know  that  such  a  regime  is  like  the  night  in  which  all  cows 
are  black.  That  fiction,  and  denial  of  reality,  seems  admirable 
to  many,  but  it  ought  not  to  be  countenanced  by  any  man  who 
claims  to  desire  for  himself  and  all  men  knowledge  of  the  truth 
in  the  light  of  day. 

Speaking  of  the  American  plan  of  governing  universities,  Com- 
missioner Draper  in  1905  at  the  National  Conference  of  College 
and  University  Trustees,  said:  "It  is  neither  a  mistake  nor  a 
wrong.  It  is  neither  an  accident  nor  an  impulse;  it  is  a  growth, 
the  deliberate  product  of  conditions,  of  means,  and  of  thought. 


NATURE   OF   THE  BOARD'S   CONTROL  91 

It  is  a  great  combination  of  material  resources  and  moral  forces. 
.  .  .  Its  usefulness  depends  upon  giving  the  management  both 
moral  sense  and  worldly  knowledge.  .  .  .  Trustees,  as  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  founders  or  of  the  State,  are  practically,  if  not 
altogether,  unknown  to  foreign  universities.  Those  universities 
are  managed  directly  by  the  faculties,  or  by  the  government,  or  by 
both.  The  introduction  of  trustee  management  into  American 
universities  has  resulted  necessarily  from  their  more  democratic 
character  [origin],  from  their  different  manner  of  support,  from 
their  independence  of  [the  state]  government,  and  from  the  dif- 
ference between  the  political  systems  and  popular  purposes  in  the 
New  World  and  the  Old." 

There  need  be  no  doubt,  then,  in  the  minds  of  the  regents  of  any 
American  college  or  university  that  they  are  called  to  discharge  a 
useful  and  important  function.  As  Commissioner  Draper  says: 
"The  trustees  of  a  university  are  charged  by  law,  either  statu- 
tory or  judge-made,  or  by  widely  acknowledged  usage,  with  that  / 
general  oversight  and  that  legislative  direction  which  will  assure  V 
the  true  execution  of  a  trust.  .  .  .  This  is  a  heavy  burden. 
It  must  be  assumed  that  it  is  given  to  picked  men  who  are  spe- 
cially able  to  bear  it;  who  would  not  give  their  time  to  it  for 
money  compensation,  but  are  happy  in  doing  it  for  the  sake  of 
promoting  the  best  and  noblest  things."  It  is  vulgarly  doubted 
that  such  men  exist;  but  the  removal  of  such  doubts  is  one  of 
the  highest  services  of  true  universities  to  the  commonwealth. 
I  have  underscored  the  words  of  Dr.  Draper  that  suggest  the 
vitally  important  principles.  When  powers  are  based  upon  and 
exercised  in  accordance  with  valid  principles  the  worst  troubles 
of  organization  and  administration  disappear. 

Proper  Nature  of  the  Board's  Control 

The  fundamental  principle  that  should  determine  the  nature 
of  the  control  exercised  by  the  governing  board,  is  that  the  control 
should  be  legislative.  All  power,  indeed,  subject  only  to  the  law 


92  NATURE  OF  THE  BOARD'S  CONTROL 

of  the  land,  vests  in  the  board  of  regents,  but  grave  and  extraor- 
dinary must  be  the  emergency  that  could  justify  the  assumption 
^  of  any  power  or  function  that  has  been  properly  committed  to 
its  executive  officer  or  properly  belongs  to  the  faculty.  The  indi- 
vidual member  of  the  board  has  no  official  power  whatever  and 
should  never  attempt  to  exercise  any,  unless  some  special  author- 
ity has  been  expressly  delegated  to  him  by  a  recorded  action  of 
the  board.  Everything  the  board  does  must  be  done  in  session, 
to  stand  as  recorded  (approved  and  attested)  in  a  permanent 
record. 

Much  confused  thought  and  speech,  and  consequent  injurious 
action,  would  be  obviated  if  the  precise  meanings  of  the  words 
governing  and  executive  were  understood  and  kept  in  mind  by 
'  those  who  undertake  to  discuss  the  organization  of  universities. 
"Govern"  means  to  regulate  by  authority.  From  an  internal  point 
of  view  the  board  of  trustees  should  always  be,  and  be  spoken  of 
as,  a  governing  not  an  executive  board.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  the  state  legislature  the  same  board  is,  and  might  without  im- 
propriety be  termed,  an  executive  board;  but  the  function  of  ex- 
ecuting (i.  e.,  following  out)  the  laws  enacted  by  the  legislature 
is  so  implicit  and  self-evident,  that  the  board's  more  character- 
istic inner  relation  in  the  institution  ought  to  determine  its  des- 
ignation. The  laws  of  the  state  legislature  ought  to  be  only  for 
the  establishment  of  the  institution  and  provisions  of  a  most  gen- 
eral character:  subject  to  those,  the  supreme  government  of  the 
university  is  committed  to  the  board  of  regents.  Hence  the  board 
is  substantially  a  governing  board:  and  its  government  must  be 
by  means  of  its  orderly  legislation  (never  by  the  dictation  of  its 
individual  members),  else  it  will  be,  literally  and  in  the  full 
sense  of  the  word,  a  lawless  government.  If,  within  the  institution, 
the  board  conceives  itself  to  be,  or  undertakes  to  be,  executive  for 
its  own  ordinances,  disorganization  and  endless  damage  has  al- 
ways followed.  It  is  therefore  no  mere  solecism,  discreditable  as 
that  would  be,  when  university  men  speak  of  their  "executive 


MISUSED  WORDS  93 

board."  By  so  doing  they  fairly  'put  it  into  the  head'  of  the 
board  to  do  the  things  of  which  they  complain  so  bitterly.  If 
greater  interests  were  not  involved,  they  might  not  unjustly  be 
derided  for  the  natural  consequences  of  their  own  ignorance  or 
carelessness.  It  is  puerile  to  regard  such  vital  errors  of  thought 
and  language  as  mere  solecisms,  interesting  only  to  grammarians. 
They  have  been  veritable  fountains  of  error  throughout  the  his- 
tory of  mankind  in  the  most  practical  affairs.  Uninformed  and 
careless  talkers  would  do  well  to  read  Lord  Yerulam's  present- 
ment of  these  "idols  of  the  market/'  as  he  calls  them,  which  they 
may  find  in  both  his  Advancement  of  Learning  and  his  Novum 
Organum.* 


*In  the  Fifth  Book  of  his  Advancement  of  Learning  and  in  the  First 
Book  of  his  Novum  Organum,  Bacon  shows  how  false  and  inapt  uses  of 
words  are  a  main  hindrance  in  the  "interpretation  of  nature  and  the 
Empire  of  man."  "The  physical  treatment  [of  things  and  their  conditions] 
we  have  allotted  to  primary  philosophy,  but  their  logical  treatment  is 
what  we  here  call  the  confutation  of  interpretation.  And  this  we  take  for 
a  sound  and  excellent  part  of  learning,  as  general  and  common  notions, 
unless  accurately  and  judiciously  distinguished  from  their  origin,  are  apt 
to  mix  themselves  in  all  disputes,  so  as  strangely  to  cloud  and  darken 
the  light  of  the  question:  for  equivocations  and  wrong  acceptations  of 
words  are  the  sophisms  of  sophisms."  This  doctrine's  "true  use  is  redar- 
gution  and  caution  about  the  employing  of  words."  False  prejudices,  or 
"idols,"  are  set  up  in  the  mind  ( 1 )  by  the  nature  of  mankind — idols  of 
the  tribe,  (2)  by  the  nature  and  experience  of  each  individual — idols  of 
the  den,  (3)  by  misused  and  imperfectly  defined  words — idols  of  the 
market,  and  (4)  by  erroneous  theories,  imbibed  in  false  teaching — idols 
of  the  theatre.  These,  says  Francis  Bacon,  "are  the  deepest  fallacies  of 
the  human  mind;  for  they  do  not  deceive  in  particulars,  as  the  rest 
[errors  of  deduction  and  induction],  by  clouding  and  ensnaring  the  judg- 
ment; but  from  a  corrupt  predisposition  of  the  mind,  which  distorts  and 
infects  all  the  anticipations  of  the  understanding."  "The  false  notions 
which  have  already  preoccupied  the  understanding,  .  .  .  not  only  so 
beset  men's  minds  that  they  become  difficult  of  access,  but  even  when 
access  is  obtained  will  again  meet  and  trouble  us  in  the  instauration  of 
the  sciences,  unless  mankind  when  forewarned  guard  themselves  with  all 
possible  care  against  them."  The  idols  of  the  market,  he  declares,  are  the 
most  troublesome  of  all — "give  the  greatest  disturbance."  "Words  and 
names  insinuate  themselves  into  the  understanding."  It  is  difficult  "to 
remedy  the  mischief  ...  to  correct  the  wrong  acceptation  of  words 


94  EXECUTIVE  AGENT 

The  "chief  executive"  of  a  university  sometimes  manifests  a 
need  to  consider  the  meaning  of  that  title  from  the  opposite  angle. 
It  seems  evident  that  the  presidents  of  some  universities  have  never 
paused  to  think  what  the  word  executive  means.  They  use  it 
frequently,  and  with  a  capital  E;  but  I  have  read  'after"  some 
of  them  in  contexts  that  admit  only  such  meaning,  in  their  minds, 
as  ruler  or  even  dictator.  But  ex-sequi  is  to  follow  out,  and  an 
executive  officer,  as  such,  is  one  who  is  to  follow  out  to  the  end, 
or  cause  to  be  followed  out,  laws  or  ordinances  given  to  and  im- 
posed upon  him  by  some  legislative  authority.  The  president 
of  a  university  has  another  essential  function  of  leadership- 
based  on  his  wisdom  and  the  weight  of  his  counsel,  but  that  is 
entirely  aside  from  and  additional  to  his  executive  function. 
As  an  executive,  he  is  to  execute  and  can  properly  enforce  only  the 
ordinances  decreed  by  the  board  of  regents  or  the  faculty. 

The  body  legislates,  but  individuals  must  execute.  A  board 
must  have  an  executive  agent.  The  immense  and  complex  activi- 
ties of  the  typical  American  university  create  a  practical  ne- 
cessity for  one  chief  executive  officer  of  the  hoard,  to  be  the  ad- 
ministrative head  of  the  institution.  Subordinate  administra- 
tive officers  may  be  needed  according  to  circumstances,  always  in- 
cluding a  manager  of  certain  business  affairs.  The  main  work, 
for  the  promotion  of  which  regents  and  president  were  called 
into  being,  is  performed  by  the  faculty.  It  is  coming  to  appear 


.  .  .  to  prevent  the  seducing  incantation  of  names."  "There  arises 
from  a  bad  and  inapt  formation  of  words  a  wonderful  obstruction  to  the 
mind.  .  .  .  Words  force  the  understanding,  throw  everything  into  con- 
fusion, and  lead  mankind  into  vain  and  innumerable  controversies  and 
fallacies." 

Ruskin,  in  whose  writings  errors  imposed  by  words  are  continually 
pointed  out  with  astonishing  force,  makes  the  following  general  comment: 
"There  are  masked  words  abroad  which  everybody  uses,  and  most  will  also 
fight  for,  live  for,  or  even  die  for,  fancying  they  mean  this  or  that  or  the 
other.  There  were  never  creatures  of  prey  so  mischievous,  never  diploma- 
tists BO  cunning,  never  poisons  so  deadly,  as  these  masked  words;  they  are 
the  unjust  stewards  of  men's  ideas." 


NATURE   OF   THE  BOARD'S   CONTROL  95 

more  and  more  clearly  that  if  the  faculty  is  (or  is  to  become)  in  its 
constituent  members  what  a  university  faculty  ought  to  be,  the  fac-     // 
ulty  should  be  recognized  (even  though  the  law  does  not  do  so)  as  a    * 
body  co-ordinate  with,  not  subordinate  to,  the  board  of  trustees. 
Evidently  to   the   faculty   should   be  assigned   authority   for  the 
management  of  all  teaching  and  all  work  for  the  advancement  and 
dissemination  of  knowledge  undertaken  in  official  capacity.     In 
the  last  statement  the  term  "teaching"  includes  all  educational 
requirements  and  the  disciplinary  control  of  students. 

Following  chapters  will  adduce  cumulative  reasons  for  such  an 
organization  as  is  here  suggested.  At  this  point,  I  merely  add 
that  a  general  policy  of  non-interference  with  inherent  respon- 
sibility and  its  properly  commensurate  authority,  or  with  dele- 
gated powers,  should  be  followed.  I  do  not  mean  that  any  mem- 
ber of  the  entire  organization  should  be  restrained  from  construc- 
tive thought  or  counsel;  the  spontaneous  co-operation  of  all  parts 
is  a  vital  characteristic  of  successful  organization.*  But  it  is 
of  most  far  reaching  importance  that  things  be  done  through 
proper  agencies.  For  instance,  if  there  were  to  arise  in  the 
counsels  of  the  members  of  the  governing  board  a  criticism  of 
present  arrangements  or  an  idea  of  some  new  undertaking  in  edu- 
cational work,  which,  after  careful  consideration,  seemed  to  be 
valuable,  it  would  be  absurd  to  keep  silent.  But  the  board  ought 
not  to  formulate  any  such  matter  and  issue  it  as  an  edict;  the  pro- 
posal should  be  sent  to  the  faculty  with  a  request  that  it  be  con- 
sidered, and,  if  approved,  that  an  ordinance  be  formulated  and 
enacted.  Dean  Bessey,  speaking  as  trustee  of  Doane  College,  after 
explaining  from  his  ripe  experience  the  wisdom  of  such  organiza- 
tion, added:  "I  have,  alas,  known  of  cases  where  the  trustees 
did  not  wait  for  faculty  action,  but  themselves  formulated  the 
plan  independently  of  the  faculty.  I  cannot  too  strongly  condemn 
such  action;  and  while  some  faculties  are  no  doubt  too  slow  and 

*See  page  2. 


96  RELATION  TO  THE  PRESIDENT 

conservative  [said  in  1905],  yet  in  the  end  the  trustees  would 
have  done  better  to  have  requested  previous  consideration  by  the 
teaching  body." 

Inasmuch  as  the  power  and  the  responsibility  for  the  appropria- 
tion of  money  is  in  the  board  of  regents,  it  follows  that  the  de- 
cisive action,  even  in  many  educational  affairs,  necessarily  rests 
with  that  board.  By  appropriating  or  withholding  money  the 
regents  ultimately  control  every  matter  requiring  considerable 
expenditure, — not  in  detail,  but  as  to  whether  or  not  the  enter- 
prise is  to  be  undertaken.  It  would  help  greatly  to  clear  think- 
ing and  wholesome  feeling  if  this  fact  were  always  borne  in  mind. 
Dr.  Bessey  states  the  condition  and  an  appropriate  principle  of 
action  as  follows: 

"In  all  cases  where  questions  of  policy  are  concerned  ultimately  involv- 
ing the  expenditure  of  money,  it  is  manifest  that  the  trustees  must  take 
action.  Thus,  in  the  establishment  of  new  departments  and  courses  of  study, 
while  the  faculty  is  the  only  body  capable  of  formulating  the  matter,  it 
must  be  favorably  acted  upon  by  the  trustees  before  it  can  receive  the 
necessary  financial  support.  It  is  clearly  impracticable,  and  therefore 
impossible  for  any  board  of  trustees  to  allow  the  faculty  to  pass  finally 
upon  matters  which  necessitate  expenditures  of  money  not  yet  authorized 
by  the  board  itself. 

"A  good  working  scheme  is  that  which  recognizes  the  powers  and  duties 
of  both  bodies.  In  general,  the  faculty  takes  the  initiative,  and  proposes 
a  plan  which  is  then  submitted  to  the  trustees  for  their  approval.  In 
case  of  non-approval,  the  matter  must  of  necessity  be  dropped  for  the 
present,  or  so  modified  as  to  meet  with  approval  later.  In  case  of  ap- 
proval, the  trustees  provide  for  the  expense  of  the  project,  and  should 
delegate  [leave]  the  arrangement  of  details  to  the  faculty  as  the  body  of 
experts  who  are  supposed  to  know  more  about  these  matters  than  the 
members  of  the  governing  body." 

Relation  to  the  President 

In  regard  to  the  presidency  it  will  suffice  in  this  chapter  to  con- 
sider only  the  most  fundamental  of  the  many  vexed  questions 
concerning  the  office.  Should  the  president  be  a  member  of  the 


RELATION    TO   THE    PRESIDENT  97 

governing  board?     It  seems  incongruous  that  the  executive  agent 
and  intimate  expert  adviser  of  the  board  should  vote  on  his  own 
recommendations  or  in  judgment  of  his   own  success.     An  op- 
posite theory,  however,  is  held  and  practiced  in  some  universi- 
ties.    President  Eliot's  opinion  represents  the  extreme:     "In  the 
board  of  trustees  the  president  should  invariably  name  all  com- 
mittees,  never  allowing  this   important   function   to  be  usurped 
by  any  private  member."     This  means  in  ordinary  circumstances 
a  one-man  power,   and  relegates  the   "private"  members  of  the 
board  to  a  latent  function  for  exercising  a  right  of  revolution 
against  the  president  in  case  a  majority  of  them  should,  in  secret 
murmuring,  decide  to  vote  to  depose  their  ruler,  and  seek  a  new 
one.     It   is,  indeed,  a  vital  necessity  that  the  president  should 
have  powers  commensurate  with  his  responsibilities.     As  Doctor 
Draper  says,  "the  trustees  make  a  mess  of  it,  when  they  usurp 
executive  functions,  and  they  sow  dragons'  teeth  when  they  in- 
trigue with  a  teacher  or  hunt  a  job  for  a  patriot  who  thinks  he 
is  in  need  of  it."     The  board  must  respect  and  sustain  its  execu- 
tive agent  welcoming  his  advice  on  all  subjects,  and  it  is  in  ap- 
pointments to  faculty  membership  that  the  board  is  most  bound 
to  be  guided  by  his  advice.     Such  matters  are  considered  in  a 
subsequent  chapter.      But  the   president's   proper   and   necessary 
powers  do  not  rest  upon  voting  membership  in  the  board  of  re- 
gents, still  less  upon  the  chairmanship  of  that  board.     It  may 
be  concluded  that  he  should  have  voice  but  not  vote  in  its  ses- 
sions.    His  privilege  of  the  floor  should  not  be  by  courtesy,  but 
it  should  be  his  right  established  in  the  primary  ordinances  of 
the  board. 

Many  corroborative  opinions  could  be  submitted  testifying  from 
experience  to  the  inexpediency  of  the  executive  officer  of  the  gov- 
erning board  having  membership  therein.  For  state  institutions — 
the  subject  of  this  study — there  is  little  dispute  about  it,  Mr.  S.  A. 
Bullard,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University  of 


98  RELATION    TO   THE   PRESIDENT 

Illinois,  at  the  National  Conference  of  College  and  University 
Trustees  in  1905,  gave  his  experience: 

"At  the  organization  of  the  University  of  Illinois  .  .  .  there  were 
thirty-two  members  of  the  board.  .  .  .  There  were  three  who  held  the 
office  by  virtue  of  holding  some  other  office  in  the  State,  one  of  them  being 
the  president  of  the  university.  He  became  [ex-officio]  a  member  and 
also  president  of  the  board.  .  .  .  Operations  under  that  regime  did 
not  last  very  long.  The  arrangement  seemed  to  be  unsatisfactory.  The 
board  was  a  large  one,  and  it  put  into  the  hands  of  the  president  of  the 
university  immense  power.  .  .  .  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  president 
had  almost  unlimited  power.  Only  a  few  years  afterwards  the  legislature 
entirely  changed  the  whole  system.  They  reduced  the  board  of  trustees 
to  eleven  members,  of  whom  the  president  of  the  university  was  no  longer 
one.  .  .  .  The  change  arose  from  the  fact  that  it  was  felt  that  too 
much  power  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  president  of  the  university. 
A  change  was  made  because  of  that  fact,  although  every  one  in  the  State, 
including  every  member  of  the  legislature,  had  the  highest  regard  for  the 
president.  He  was  our  first  president  and  he  remained  president  of  the 
university  for  a  good  many  years  after  that  change  was  made.  .  .  . 
And  I  think  the  university  grew  and  prospered  more  after  the  change 
than  before." 

I  see  no  need  or  good  reason  for  changing  the  essential  features 
of  the  American  system  of  university  government  and  adminis- 
tration. But  there  is  urgent,  critical  need  of  transforming  the 
spirit  in  which  the  various  functions  are  frequently  discharged. 
In  all  quarters  men  are  complaining  of  faults  of  omission  and 
commission.  In  the  mass  of  such  complaints  the  remedies  pro- 
posed often  imply  partial  views.  Seldom  do  the  critics  appear 
to  have  a  comprehensive  view — see  the  whole.  Some  neglect  is 
observed, — the  shortest  cut  to  meet  it  is  proposed;  some  malad- 
justment in  one  relation  is  indicated, — the  remedy  offered  would 
dislocate  other  relations;  some  interference  is  bewailed, — and  law- 
is  invoked  to  bind  or  to  abolish  the  interloper.  Such  tendencies 
are  not  peculiar  to  our  educational  institutions;  they  have  ap- 
peared in  all  fields.  And  the  members  of  university  faculties 
who  are  reproaching  presidents  for  dictatorial  methods,  should 


TWO   THEORIES    OF    MANAGEMENT  99 

observe  that  nearly  all  so-called  deliberative  bodies  are  showing 
more  proneness  to  over-regulating  whatever  they  have  in  charge 
than  appears  in  individuals  "dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority"  but 
urjfit  to  be  judges  or  dividers  over  men.  No  more  ill  considered 
excesses  of  regulation  occur  in  the  management  of  colleges  and 
universities,  than  are  to  be  found  in  purely  faculty  enactments 
for  regulating  the  studies  and  conduct  of  students. 

Two  Theories  of  University  Management 

Improper  encroachments  by  the  governing  boards  and  adminis- 
trative officers  of  American  universities  have  sprung,  I  believe, 
more  from  misconceptions  of  organization  in  general  and  of  the 
natural  structure  of  the  kind  of  organism  they  govern  and  ad- 
minister, than  from  any  disposition  to  arrogance  or  egotism.  Dr. 
Eugene  Davenport,  Director  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Sta- 
tion of  the  University  of  Illinois,  has  so  nearly  expressed  and 
illustrated  what  I  would  submit  to  the  reader  at  this  point,  that 
I  prefer  to  use  his  words: 

"There  are  two  theories  of  university  management.  They  are  clear  cut, 
distinct,  and  diametrically  opposite  in  fundamental  principles.  They  lead 
their  followers  to  conclusions  as  wide  apart  as  are  the  principles  on  which 
they  are  based.  The  one  looks  upon  a  university  as  a  great  administra- 
tive machine,  with  regular  gradations  from  top  to  bottom,  or  from  center 
to  circumference,  each  deriving  its  sole  authority  from  the  next  above, 
The  other  looks  upon  a  university  as  an  organization  of  working  units* 
(departments)  and  of  groups  of  departments  (colleges,  schools,  experi- 
ment stations),  each  engaged  in  the  achievement  of  particular  and  definite 
ends;  each  finding  sufficient  authority  for  its  work  in  the  nature  of  its 
obligation;  each  accountable  to  administrative  officers  for  results.  .  .  . 

"The  one  regards  administration  as  the  principal,  as  it  is  the  most  con- 
spicuous feature  of  university  service;  the  other  regards  work  in  the 
department  as  primary,  and  administration  as  necessary  not  to  work,  but 
to  the  coordination  of  work. 


*I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  substituting  organization  of  working  units 
for  "aggregation  of  working  unity"  in  the  original. 


100  TWO    THEORIES    OF    MANAGEMENT 

"The  one  theory  of  university  management  is  simple  and  direct  because 
it  either  disregards  or  subordinates  all  other  considerations  to  those  of 
administration.  In  its  simplicity  lies  its  danger,  for  it  sacrifices  even 
the  primary  responsibilities  of  a  department  to  the  demands  and  the  oper- 
ations of  a  well-rounded  administrative  machine.  In  its  directness  is  its 
injury;  for,  by  the  edict  of  authority  it  secures  promptly,  even  on  the 
instant,  certain  results  to  which  it  may  have  set  its  hand  even  though  it 
override  every  other  consideration.  Nobody  sees  the  trail  of  blood.  .  .  . 
The  army  without  orders  is  idle.  It  has  but  one  thing  to  do,  obey.  A 
university  should  be  always  busy  executing  commissions  and  discharging 
obligations  without  orders,  and  nobody  realizes  how  the  edicts  of  a  'strong 
administration,'  erratic  as  they  often  are,  plow  through  the  very  center 
of  university  work.  So  the  means  becomes  the  end,  and  obedience  to 
authority  the  highest  duty.  Here  is  the  danger  to  university  life. 

"The  alternative  is  more  difficult,  for  it  is  more  complicated.  It  recog- 
nizes the  primary  obligation  of  work  and  assumes  that  the  details  of 
administration  shall  fit  the  exigencies  of  service.  ...  A  plan  of  organ- 
ization must  be  devised  that  will  recognize  and  take  account  of  the  nat- 
urally busy  centers  where  original  obligations  are  discharged. 

"Now  the  heart  and  core  and  soul  of  the  one  theory  of  university 
organization  is  authority,  absolute  authority,  expressed  in  terms  of  ad- 
ministration. According  to  this  system  all  action  is  based  upon  authority, 
which,  whether  expressed  or  implied,  is  delegated  from  one  central  point. 
The  heart  and  core  and  soul  of  the  other  theory  is  that  the  primary 
authority  and  rights  of  the  individual  arise  out  of  the  nature  of  the 
obligations  he  has  assumed;  that  heads  [or  chairmen]  of  departments, 
deans  of  colleges,  directors  of  experiment  stations,  presidents  of  univer- 
sities, boards  of  control,  all  have  their  distinct  and  definite  duties  and 
obligations;  that  properly  understood,  these  obligations  do  not  overlap, 
nor  do  the  fields  conflict;  so  that  it  is  a  safe  principle  that  each  responsi- 
bility carries  with  it  enough  authority  to  discharge  the  obligation,  and 
each  responsible  individual  is  supreme  in  affairs  lying  clearly  within  the 
range  of  his  activities,  and  free  to  do  those  things  that  will  most  directly 
and  completely  discharge  his  obligations.  This  theory  calls  for  lesa 
authority  and  more  work.  ...  It  maintains  that  authority  was 
neither  handed  down  from  above  nor  delegated  from  below,  but  that  it 
is  inherent  in  responsibility,  was  involved  in  the  original  engagement, 
and  was  conferred  at  the  time  and  by  the  same  authority  that  made  the 
appointment  to  office,  all  of  which  is  held  to  be  a  good  and  safe  principle 


TWO    THEORIES    OF    MANAGEMENT  101 

for  ever}*  man  in  the  university,  from  the  humblest  assistant  up  to  the 
trustees  themselves;  and,  whether  the  field  be  wide  or  narrow,  the  respon- 
sibility little  or  great,  there  is  always  involved  authority  sufficient  to 
discharge  its  obligations. 

"The  advocates  of  a  'strong  administration'  represent  that  university 
men  are  singularly  lacking  in  judgment,  and  are  valuable  in  proportion 
as  they  are  managed;  .  .  .  they  look  upon  subordinates  as  not  pos- 
sessing original  authority  of  any  kind. 

"The  opposition  contends  that  this  system  will  retain  only  mediocrity 
in  university  positions;  that  the  nature  of  department  service  is  such 
as  to  require  not  only  technical  knowledge  and  skill,  but  personal  initia- 
tive as  well,  together  with  large  freedom  of  action;  and  that  the  plan 
of  management  through  administrative  authority,  though  giving  rise  to 
a  great  show  of  activity  at  central  points,  removes  the  most  powerful 
incentive  to  individual  exertion,  and  fails  to  call  out  and  make  effective 
more  than  a  small  fraction  of  the  tremendous  forces  latent  in  the  per- 
sonnel of  a  great  university. 

"The  so-called  'strong  administration'  has  the  advantage  in  the  eyes  of 
those  who  look  on,  or  those  who  are  more  familiar  with  the  business  side 
of  university  affairs  than  with  the  extensive  and  complicated  work  neces- 
sary to  discharge  university  obligations.  They  who  do  not  get  behind 
the  footlights  see  little  of  the  consequences  of  too  much  administration. 

"The  opposition  is  accused  of  advocating  a  weak  system  and  of  attempt- 
ing to  break  down  administrative  authority.  .  .  .  Nothing  is  further 
from  the  purposes  of  the  writer  than  to  advocate  a  weak  organization, 
and  no  one  knows  better  than  he  what  are  its  certain  consequences.  It 
has  always  been  true  that  a  weak  organization  leaves  boards  of  trustees 
at  sea.  In  this  condition  they  soon  attempt  to  manage  details  them- 
selves. Abandoning  their  proper  functions  as  legislative  bodies,  they 
undertake  the  role  of  administration,  acting  as  their  own  executive.  The 
consequences  of  this  are  even  more  disastrous  than  those  of  too  much 
administration.  .  .  . 

"The  question  is  whether  the  system  shall  hang  pendant  from  the  sky, 
held  together  only  by  authority  from  above,  or  be  built  upon  a  foundation 
laid  in  department  work  and  held  together  by  graded  authority  arising 
out  of  responsibility  for  work  accomplished. 

"Whichever  system  shall  prevail,  the  departments  must  continue  to  do 
business  and  meet  their  obligations  to  the  public  the  best  they  can. 


102  TWO   THEORIES    OF    MANAGEMENT 

Through  them  the  university  must  meet  and  discharge  the  bulk  of  ifcs 
obligations.  .  .  . 

"The  principles  and  practices  I  advocate  are  those  that  we  have  ham- 
mered out  together  in  the  Experiment  Station  by  dint  of  much  conference 
and  careful  discussion  while  engaged  in  a  complicated  and  difficult  service. 
They  have  been  born  of  experience  and  have  established  themselves  among 
us  as  the  most  natural  methods  of  work.  .  .  .  Whether  the  principles 
and  practices  are  sound  or  whether  they  are  false,  of  this  I  am  assured, — 
if  I,  as  Director,  had  attempted  to  maintain  a  so-called  'close  administra- 
tion' over  these  departments,  we  should  have  all  broken  down  together 
long  ago. 

"Let  me  tell  you  something  of  the  conditions  under  which  we  have 
wrought  together,  in  this  organization  of  which  I  am  now  speaking.  .  .  . 
This  is  an  array  of  conditions  that  may  well  appall  any  man,  or  set  of 
men,  and  certainly  tests  the  capacity  of  men  and  the  elasticity  and  effi- 
ciency of  an  organization.  I  have  heard  one  high  in  the  counsels  of  this 
University  say  that  the  institution  never  before  assumed  such  tremen- 
dous responsibilities  as  when  it  accepted  these  appropriations.  ...  At 
the  outset  I  was  told  over  and  over  again  that  our  organization  would 
break  down  under  such  a  load  laid  suddenly  upon  us.  It  has  not  been 
broken  down  and  I  never  feared  that  it  would.  The  machinery  has  not 
even  creaked,  and  we  have  been  exceedingly  happy  together  in  rendering 
a  service  that  requires  a  bulletin  issue  of  35,000  for  each  edition,  and 
that  long  ago  gave  rise  to  a  correspondence  amounting  to  over  10,000 
letters  a  year,  involving  some  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  the  state, 
the  nation,  and  the  world.  You  will  pardon  this  somewhat  specific 
allusion  to  our  affairs.  It  is  necessary  to  what  I  have  to  say. 

"How  did  we  discharge  these  new  and  tremendous  obligations?  Behold, 
now,  I  show  you  a  mystery!  So  far  as  direct  responsibility  is  concerned, 
six  men  did  it.  One  of  these  is  the  director,  it  is  true;  but  the  work 
was  done,  and  is  being  done,  almost  entirely  without  the  use  of  authority. 
Of  conference,  discussion,  and  planning  yi  objects  and  methods  and  inter- 
pretation of  results,  hours,  days,  yes,  weeks,  have  been  spent  on  the  part 
of  these  six  men  and  their  assistants.  I  assure  there  was  prearrange- 
ment  in  every  movement, — but  exercise  of  authority!  I  question  if  it  ever 
occurred  to  anybody  to  use  it.  Almost  the  only  authority  found  necessary 
in  this  work  has  been  the  statute  appropriating  the  funds,  the  election 
of  employes  upon  the  approval  of  the  President,  and  the  sanction  of  plans 
and  appropriation  of  funds  by  the  Trustees.  There  is  a  mass  of  authority 


TWO    THEORIES    OF    MANAGEMENT  103 

in  small  compass.  It  does  not  touch  details,  yet  it  is  ample.  But  little 
more  was  needed,  and  that  was  in  the  way  of  relieving  a  few  incompe- 
tents. .  .  . 

"Within  six  years  the  total  number  of  employes  in  the  college  and 
station  increased  from  a  dozen  to  nearly  fifty,  so  that  the  responsibilities 
to  which  I  have  alluded  are  but  a  part  of  the  full  labor.  I  beg  you  to 
believe  that  I  give  this  specific  example  with  the  sole  desire  to  show  you 
what  men  can  accomplish  when  conditions  are  favorable,  and  when  not 
annoyed  by  too  much  oversight  and  not  circumscribed  by  too  much  admin- 
istrative direction. 

"I  could  point  out  to  you  one  of  these  men  who  is  responsible  for  the 
profitable  use  of  over  $50,000  every  year,  spent  in  his  department 
alone  in  amounts  from  five  cents  up;  and  to  another  whose  researches 
bring  him  into  close  relations  with  the  most  extensive  dealers  and  the 
largest  business  interests  of  the  country.  The  least  amount  for  which 
any  one  of  the  principal  heads  is  responsible  is  $25,000  a  year.  Think  of 
issuing  orders  to  that  kind  of  men!  What  would  be  their  state  of  mind, 
if  upon  returning  to  the  University  after  a  conference  with  leading 
citizens  upon  matters  involving  thousands  and  perhaps  millions  of  dollars 
when  measured  by  public  utility,  or  upon  policies  extending  over  genera- 
tions, they  should  pick  up  and  read  specific  directions  covering  a  ten 
dollar  detail,  or  be  compelled  to  take  the  time  to  request  authority  to 
dispose  of  a  superannuated  cow?  Yet  just  such  things  are  done  and 
required,  and  just  such  things  are  advocated  in  the  name  of  adminis- 
trative solidarity  and  such  other  phrases  of  obscure  meaning  but  of  great 
power  to  confuse.  .  .  . 

"Service  to  the  public  was  the  only  object  recognized  as  legitimate,  and 
loyalty  to  the  University  and  all  its  interests  the  only  restriction.  .  .  . 

"Weekly  conferences  were  held  between  the  Director  and  the  heads  of 
departments,  and  department  conferences  are  held  at  stated  times,  in  most 
cases  weekly. 

"Work  within  the  departments  is  divided  between  individuals  who, 
.  .  .  are  given  to  understand  that  each  has  his  subject  and  will  be 
held  accountable  for  results.  .  .  . 

"Every  estimate  for  appropriations  of  funds  is  the  result  of  conference 
with  the  heads  of  departments  sitting  together.  Lump  sums  are  thus 
divided  by  the  departments  interested,  and,  after  the  appropriation  is 
made,  each  individual  knows  how  much  money  he  may  count  upon  for 
the  year,  with  which  to  discharge  his  obligations.  .  .  .  There  has 
never  yet  been  a  case  of  discord  or  of  heart-burning  among  us.  .  .  . 


104  TWO    THEORIES    OF    MANAGEMENT 

"Our  departments  have  had  every  possible  opportunity  for  work.  Every 
man  knows  his  responsibilities.  He  knows  in  advance  how  much  money 
he  can  have  for  the  year  with  which  to  discharge  his  obligations.  He 
knows,  too,  that  it  was  all  divided,  for  he  helped  to  make  the  division, 
and  therefore  he  thoroughly  understands  the  basis  on  which  it  was  made. 
In  expenditures  his  hand  is  free,  and  his  judgment,  after  conference,  is 
final;  because  there  is  no  better  information  than  his  to  be  had.  .  .  . 

"Well-defined  responsibilities,  freedom  of  action,  knowledge  of  financial 
resources,  abundant  conferences,  not  too  much  administrative  direction, 
an  open  avenue  for  information  to  the  trustees,  mutual  helpfulness;  these 
are  the  fundamental  requisites  for  efficient  university  service. 

"This  paper  would  not  only  be  incomplete  but  subject  to  dangerous  mis- 
construction without  a  word  regarding  the  presidency,  although  it  is  a 
subject  I  am  not  discussing.  I  know  the  question  that  will  first  be  raised : 
'If  every  department  is  to  largely  manage  its  own  affairs,  and  if  each 
individual  is  to  discharge  his  obligations  with  some  freedom  from  direction 
with  power  of  initiative,  then  where  is  the  authority  of  the  president,  and 
what  is  the  occasion  of  his  office?'  .  .  . 

"The  plans,  the  estimates,  and  the  lists  of  employes  nominated,  all  pass 
under  the  president's  hands  before  consideration  for  final  action.  This  is 
the  administrative  opportunity.  Here  is  where  the  president  can  put  his 
finger  on  the  very  pulse  of  the  situation.  Here  is  the  place  and  this  is 
the  time  for  discussion,  for  influence,  and  for  authority,  if  you  please,  and 
plenty  of  it.  He  who  puts  his  hand  upon  the  estimates  and  the  personnel 
and  the  general  policies  will  control  the  situation,  so  far  as  authority  can 
control  it  for  good.  That  men  shall  be  elected  to  university  positions  only 
upon  the  president's  recommendation;  this  is  the  president's  high  pre- 
rogative. It  is  one  of  his  natural  and  inalienable  rights  arising  out  of  the 
nature  of  his  responsibilities,  and  if  this  is  assured,  the  presidency  is 
safe.*  .  .  . 

"I  know  of  no  better  way  to  bring  before  you  the  principles  that  some 
of  us  believe  in  and  the  reason  for  our  belief  than  to  do  as  I  have  done, 
hold  up  a  bit  of  real  life  organized  and  operating  on  plans  diametrically 
opposite  to  some  that  are  most  loudly  advocated,  and  which  I  firmly  believe, 
should  they  ever  become  really  settled  into  university  life,  would  either 
lead  to  explosion  at  points  where  affairs  are  hot  with  real  labor  or  they 


'Additional  comments  by  Director  Davenport,  appreciative  of  the  neces- 
sity for  and  value  of  the  presidential  office,  are  given  in  a  subsequent 
chapter. 


TWO   THEORIES    OF    MANAGEMENT  105 

would  settle  down  with  crushing  force,  smothering  the  very  life  out  of 
individual  enterprise  and  initiative,  leaving  behind  lethargy  and  time- 
serving remnants,  responding  only  to  the  prod  of  administrative  direc- 
tion. .  .  . 

"I  have  been  told  that  these  ideas  are  visionary;  that,  for  example,  men 
will  not  divide  money  without  quarreling.  This  is  a  libel  on  the  intelli- 
gence, the  character,  and  good  sense  of  responsible  university  men.  We 
of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  are  no  better  than  others,  but 
our  conditions  have  forced  us  out  of  narrow  into  wider  conceptions  of  men, 
and  of  university  affairs.  Every  man  who  labors  early  and  late  in  the 
discharge  of  difficult  duty,  and  who  thereby  wins  a  place  high  in  the 
esteem  of  leading  men  outside  ought  to  be  able  to  hold  up  his  head  and 
say  with  reference  even  to  university  affairs,  'I  also  am  a  man.'  Who 
can  measure  the  stimulus  of  that  feeling  in  the  very  marrow  of  the 
bones?  .  .  . 

"If  a  man  be  treated  as  a  child  he  will  either  resent  it  or  leave;  or, 
remaining  for  the  sake  of  bread  for  his  little  ones,  he  will  grow  small  of 
mind  and  listless  of  effort, — a  marionette  animated  only  by  transmitted 
power.  I  have  known  some  of  these  child  men;  they  are  pitifully  worth- 
less for  experiment  station  purposes.  Administration  we  must  have,  but 
let  administration  take  its  proportional  place  in  university  affairs.  Let 
us  have  as  few  orders,  as  little  red  tape,  as  few  card  catalogs  and  num- 
bered blanks  and  report  slips  as  possible.  Therefore  let  us  not  fall  in  love 
with  the  system  and  forget  or  prevent  what  it  is  to  accomplish,  and  let 
us  remember  after  all  that  an  institution  is  small  or  great  according  to 
the  characters  that  compose  its  faculty,  which  is  the  most  stable  element 
of  its  personnel,  and  without  whose  loyal  and  intelligent  and  technical 
service  no  institution  and  no  administration  can  succeed.  .  .  . 

"There  is  a  service  of  the  heart,  born  of  loyalty  and  tradition,  that  will 
serve  a  cause  or  an  individual  even  unto  death.  It  is  born  not  of  author- 
ity, which  is  never  able  to  command  even  a  tithe  of  service  available; 
it  is  born  of  loyalty,  of  that  spirit  of  doing  and  serving  that  cannot  be 
bought  with  money,  that  cannot  be  demanded  by  authority,  that  cannot 
live  under  oppression  or  scorn.  We  must  have  this  service  if  our  univer- 
sities are  to  realize  the  possibilities  they  may  attain,  or  render  to  the 
public  the  service  easily  within  their  capacity.  We  can  have  this  service 
in  universities  if  we  do  not  drive  away  by  childish  or  cruel  treatment 
those  who  alone  are  capable  of  rendering  it.  If  we  do  drive  them  away 
then  God  pity  the  state  university." 


106  TWO   ESSENTIAL   RESPONSIBILITIES 

The  Two  Essential  Responsibilities 

The  two  most  essential  and  unescapable  responsibilities  of  the 
governing  board  are  (1)  legislation  that  really  organizes  accord- 
ing to  the  true  nature  of  an  institution  of  higher  education,  and 
(2)  judging  results.  Those  obligations  render  it  very  important 
that  every  member  of  the  board  should  form  clear  concepts  of  all 
general  aims  and  of  the  suitability  of  every  general  policy  as  a 
means  to  its  end.  As  a  trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  has  said,  the  American  system  needs  to  "develop  trus- 
tees who  actually,  instead  of  fictitiously,  comprehend  their  trust." 
One  of  the  first  steps  to  such  a  development  should  be  a  thoughtful 
choice  between  the  two  ideas  of  university  administration  con- 
trasted in  the  preceding  discourse  of  Director  Davenport.  As 
he  says,  either  of  the  two  plans  can  be  made  to  work.  The  real 
question  to  be  judged  is:  What  kind  of  men  will  be  found  oc- 
cupying the  teaching  positions  after  the  method  has  been  thor- 
oughly established?  A  regent  needs  primarily  to  answer  by  his 
own  judgment  the  questions:  What  is  the  real,  the  vital,  the 
essential  work  of  a  university,  that  for  which  it  was  instituted, 
and  for  which  it  is  maintained,  that  for  which  it  is  to  be  governed 
and  administered  ?  And  where  is  this  work  done,  and  who  are 
the  doers  of  it? 

Professor  S.  A.  Forbes  raises  those  questions,  and  he  answers : 
"It  is  the  work  of  education  and  research,  done  in  lecture  rooms 
and  laboratories  and  libraries,  and  by  the  members  of  the  univer- 
sity faculty/'  I  would  expand  that  answer  in  each  of  its  three 
parts — the  work,  the  places,  and  the  doers :  It  is  the  work  of 
teaching  and  learning  and  research;  the  work  is  done  in  lecture 
rooms  and  laboratories  and  libraries  and  in  the  homes  of  the 
teachers  and  of  the  students;  it  is  done  by  the  members  of  the 
faculty  and  by  the  students.  The  regents,  and  the  president  and 
his  lieutenants,  are  not  the  only  ones  who  need  to  answer  search- 
ing questions.  Faculty  members  also  need  to  think  of  what  they 


QUALITY  107 

are  for.  Except  for  creative  work  and  certain  services  to  the  gen- 
eral public,  the  members  of  the  faculty  exist,  as  such,  for  the 
students. 

Some  one  may  rejoin  to  all  this,  that  there  is  no  dispute — 
that  nobody  holds  differently.  It  is  probably  true  that  nobody 
would  formulate  a  direct  contradiction;  but  that  many  hold  (in 
the  sense  of  practice)  irreconcilable  principles  is  plain.  Actions 
speak  louder  than  words.  Also  it  is  in  state  universities  that  the 
principles  here  appealed  to  are  most  violated.  In  some  of  them, 
more  today  than  ever  before,  quality  is  being  sacrificed  to  quantity 
in  every  respect.  Nor  am  I  sure  that  we  shall  not  soon  hear  out- 
spoken championship  of  the  quantity  principle.  The  logic  of 
criticism  may  force  the  level er  into  the  open;  he  may  grow  bold 
enough  to  face  the  issue.  For  example,  he  may  begin  to  delib- 
erately justify  the  practice  (already  common)  of  preferring  fifty 
weak  departments  to  ten  strong  ones.  President  J.  W.  Mauck 
has  remarked:  "The  point  which  must  be  attacked  is  the  whole 
administrative  spirit.  .  .  .  Today  we  have  in  many  institu- 
tions, small  and  great,  too  much  devotion  to  the  popularizing  of 
a  name,  and  too  little  devotion  to  high  ideals.  ...  It  seems 
to  be  not  a  question  of  how  great  we  are,  but  as  to  how  large." 

There  is  deep  and  universal  significance  in  a  recent  comment 
by  Miss  Ida  M.  Tarbell  upon  the  popularity  of  shoddy  dress.  All 
that  she  says  may  be  applied,  mutatis  mutandis,  to  many  current 
methods  in  education : 

"From  top  to  bottom  we  are  copying.  .  .  .  The  French  or  Viennese 
mode,  started  on  Upper  Fifth  Avenue,  spreads  to  Twenty-third  Street,  to 
Fourteenth  Street,  from  Fourteenth  Street  to  Grand  and  Canal.  Each 
move  sees  it  reproduced  in  materials  a  little  less  elegant  and  durable,  its 
colors  vulgarized,  its  ornaments  cheapened.  By  the  time  it  reaches  Houston 
Street  the  $400  gown  in  brocaded  velvet  from  the  best  looms  in  Europe  has 
become  a  cotton  velvet,  decorated  with  mercerized  lace  and  glass  orna- 
ments. .  .  .  The  same  process  goes  on  inland.  The  same  gown  will 
travel  its  downward  path  westward  until  the  Grand  Street  creation  arrives 
in  some  mining  or  factory  town.  From  start  to  finish  it  is  imitation,  and 


108  QUALITY 

on  this  imitation  vast  industries  are  built — imitations  of  silks,  of  velvets, 
of  laces,  of  jewels.  .  .  . 

"They  are  bravely  ornamented,  but  never  properly  clothed.  Moreover, 
they  are  brave  but  for  a  day.  Their  purchases  have  no  goodness  in  them; 
they  tear,  grow  rusty,  fall  to  pieces  with  the  first  wearings,  and  the  p*oor 
little  victims  are  shabby  and  bedraggled  often  before  they  have  paid  for 
their  belongings. 

"This  habit  of  buying  poor  imitations  does  not  end  in  the  girl's  life 
with  her  clothes.  When  she  marries  she  carries  it  into  her  home.  Deco- 
ration, not  furnishings,  is  the  keynote  of  all  she  touches.  It  is  she  who 
is  the  best  patron  of  the  elaborate  and  monstrous  cheap  furniture,  rugs, 
draperies,  crockery,  bric-a-brac,  which  fill  the  shops  of  the  cheaper  quarters 
of  the  great  cities,  and  usually  all  quarters  of  the  newer  inland  towns. 

"Has  all  this  no  relation  to  National  prosperity — to  the  cost  of  living? 
The  effect  on  the  victim's  personal  budget  is  clear;  the  effect  it  has  on 
the  family  budget  is  clear.  In  both  cases  nothing  of  permanent  value  is 
acquired.  The  good  linen  undergarments,  the  all-wool  gown,  the  broad- 
cloth cape  or  coat — those  standard  garments  which  the  thrifty  once 
acquired  and  cherished,  only  awaken  the  mirth  of  the  pretty  little  spend- 
thrift on  $8  a  week.  Solid  pieces  of  furniture,  such  as  often  dignify  even 
the  huts  of  European  peasants,  and  are  passed  down  from  mother  to 
daughter  for  generations,  are  objects  of  contempt  to  the  younger  generation 
here.  .  .  . 

"This  production  of  shoddy  cloth,  cotton  lace,  cheap  furniture — what  is 
it  but  waste?  Waste  of  labor  and  material.  Time  and  money  and 
strength,  which  might  have  been  turned  to  producing  things  of  permanent 
values,  have  been  spent  in  things  which  have  no  goodness  in  them.  .  .  . 
Dress  is  not  merely  a  personal  problem;  it  is  a  National  problem.  It  is 
part  and  parcel  of  the  problem  of  the  cost  of  living,  of  woman's  wages,  of 
wasteful  industries,  of  the  social  evil.  Its  right  solution  means  not  only 
saner  and  happier  women,  but  it  also  means  more  stable  industries,  a  less 
tormented  society.  .  .  . 

"I  doubt  if  this  vicious  influence  will  be  weakened,  whatever  our  cam- 
paign for  social  purity,  until  we  have  come  back  to  a  natural  love  of 
quality  and  of  beauty  and  fitness  in  dress  for  their  own  sakes.  As  it  is 
now,  the  very  heart  of  the  question  of  clothes  among  American  women  is 
imitation.  That  is,  we  are  not  engaged  in  an  effort  to  work  out  in- 
dividuality." 


QUALITY  109 

The  temper  of  the  popular  life  as  a  whole  is  indeed  a  prepon- 
derating factor;  but  it  is  not  impossible  to  influence  the  temper 
of  a  people,  and  something  can  be  done  to  strengthen  and  spread 
a  good  tradition.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  devices  of 
college  and  university  administration  that  have  looked  to  quantity 
and  ignored  quality  have  been  mainly  adopted  without  any  de- 
liberate policy.  This  fact  is  recognized  in  the  most  unsparing  ar- 
raignments of  such  errors  of  administration.  "They  have  taken 
shape/'  says  Professor  Jastrow  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  "by 
the  stress  of  circumstance,  by  provisional  expediency;  and  this 
fact  offers  not  only  a  large  measure  of  excuse  but  also  lightens 
the  task  of  those  who  question  whether  future  wisdom  lies  where 
the  compromise  of  the  past  has  directed.  ...  I  know  very 
well  that  changes  of  ideals  and  purposes  must  first  inspire  confi- 
dence and  enthusiasm  before  they  reach  practical  possibilities;  but 
I  am  encouraged  by  the  example  of  many  other  educational  and 
national  evils,  that,  once  clearly  recognized,  have  in  astonishingly 
brief  time  been  swept  away  by  the  strenuous  purpose  of  the  na« 
tional  temper." 

The  "task"  would  be  much  aided  if  editorial  writers  would  study 
the  question  critically, — if  many  of  them  could  deal  with  it  as  it 
is  dealt  with  in  a  recent  editorial  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post: 

"Thirty-seven  years  ago  next  fall  Johns  Hopkins  University  was  opened, 
upon  an  endowment  estimated  at  less  than  $3,500,000.  Yesterday,  it  was 
stated  that  the  budget  adopted  by  the  trustees  of  Columbia  University 
for  the  expenses  of  the  coming  academic  year  amounted  to  $3,450,000. 
The  foundation  of  the  University  at  Baltimore  was  widely  acclaimed  as 
an  event  of  the  highest  importance  and  the  most  hopeful  augury.  .  .  . 
The  trustees  had  made  it  plain  that  their  opportunity  was  to  be  so  used 
as  to  give  to  the  higher  intellectual  life  of  the  country  a  long-needed 
stimulus.  The  hope  was  entertained  that  the  new  university  would  be 
the  means  of  introducing  in  America  the  true  university,  in  the  European 
sense  of  the  term.  And  that  hope  was  not  disappointed.  The  foundation 
of  Johns  Hopkins  University  marked  the  beginning  of  a  distinctly  new 
era  in  the  history  of  higher  education  in  America.  What  had  formerly 
been  the  rare  pursuit  of  a  devoted  scholar  here  and  there  has  become  the 


110  QUALITY 

regular  occupation  of  thousands  of  students  in  scores  of  colleges  and 
universities.  .  .  . 

"In  compassing  with  what  would  now  be  regarded  as  small  means  so 
signal  an  achievement,  one  cardinal  feature  of  the  policy  pursued  by 
President  Oilman  and  the  Johns  Hopkins  trustees  was  essential.  There 
was  one  thing  to  which  every  effort  was  directed,  every  energy  bent — the 
securing  of  the  highest  possible  quality  in  the  professors.  A  small  group 
of  real  intellectual  leaders  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  faculty;  and  in 
adding  to  them  younger  men  in  the  various  departments  the  keenest 
interest  was  constantly  maintained  in  the  discovery  of  unusual  talent  or 
exceptional  attainment.  Those  who  were  at  the  university  in  its  early 
years  testify  unanimously  to  the  extraordinary  exhilaration  and  inspira- 
tion of  the  atmosphere  thus  created.  The  buildings  were  extremely  modest, 
and  in  large  part  of  a  makeshift  character,  being  old  residences  altered  at 
slight  expense;  the  warning  given  by  Huxley,  in  his  notable  address  at 
the  opening,  against  putting  into  bricks  and  mortar  what  ought  to  be 
invested  in  brains,  was  rather  by  way  of  accentuating  a  policy  already 
pursued  than  of  advising  its  adoption. 

"The  revenue  from  the  endowment  proved  to  be  even  less  than  had  been 
expected;  .  .  .  and  if  so  great  an  impetus  was  given  at  Baltimore  to 
the  university  idea  in  America,  this  must  be  ascribed,  above  all  else,  to 
the  clear  recognition  of  intellectual  superiority  as  the  touchstone  of  uni- 
versity distinction. 

"The  Columbia  budget  of  $3,450,000  is  typical  of  the  present-day  expend- 
itures of  our  larger  universities.  That  they  accomplish  results  of  extensive 
and  varied  usefulness,  no  one  would  deny.  They  cover  a  field  much  larger 
than  that  which  formerly  comprised  the  activities  of  our  institutions  of 
learning.  .  .  .  But  we  doubt  whether  any  one  would  so  much  as  claim 
that  the  enormous  enlargement  of  university  expenditure  has  been  attended 
with  any  such  nourishment  of  high  intellectual  standards  or  ideals  as 
might  have  been  hoped.  .  .  . 

"In  comparison  with  this  question,  all  matters  of  mere  management  are 
trivial.  And  it  is  for  this  reason,  more  than  any  other,  that  we  have 
always  regarded  the  magnifying  of  questions  of  administration  in  our 
American  universities  as  so  deplorable.  To  get  men  of  real  power  into 
the  professorships — that  is  the  great  problem. 

"The  question  of  salaries  is  undoubtedly  a  stumbling-block;  .  .  .  but 
important  as  this  material  side  is,  even  more  important  are  the  less 
tangible  elements  that  fix  the  character  of  the  professorial  life.  .  .  . 


STATUS  OF  THE  FACULTY  111 

All   other  tasks   of  university  presidents   and  university  trustees   are  of 
small  moment  in  comparison." 

The  Status  of  the  Faculty 

The  essential  fact  that  a  university  must  be  built  upon  its  pro- 
fessorships, if  it  is  to  be  truly  built  up  at  all,  is  recognized  by 
many  university  trustees  and  presidents,  and  the  existing  evils  are 
quite  generaly  perceived,  but  no  general*  movement  for  a  proper 
correlation  of  trustees  and  faculty  has  yet  arisen.  The  question 
of  the  proper  status  of  the  faculty  is  so  fundamental  for  every 
governing  board,  that  it  may  be  advantageous  to  extend  the  data 
here  submitted  by  several  more  statements  pointing  out  some  of 
the  conditions  that  call  for  remedial  changes  in  the  spirit  and 
policies  of  government  and  administration.  Describing  "the  drift 
within  the  university,"  Professor  Jastrow  has  testified: 

"Colleges  engage  in  what  the  press  is  pleased  to  call  a  friendly  rivalry 
to  secure  the  largest  crop  of  freshmen;  and  undue  influences  are  set  at 
work  upon  departments  and  professors  to  attract  large  classes.  Facilita- 
tion of  administrative  measures  and  some  practical  executive  efficiency  are 
far  more  apt  to  meet  with  tangible  rewards  than  are  more  academic 
talents.  It,  takes  a  sturdy  determination,  a  sterling  character,  and  a  large 
measure  of  actual  sacrifice  to  withstand  this  manifold  pressure.  Those 
who  resist  it  least,  or  are  least  sensitive  to  anything  to  be  resisted,  are 
likely  to  find  themselves  in  the  more  prominent  places;  and  so  the  unfor- 
tunate emphasis  gathers  strength  by  its  own  headway.  The  esprit  of 
academic  intercourse,  the  inspiration  of  individual  character  subtly  yet 
inevitably  lose  their  finer  qualities.  There  comes  to  be  developed  a  type 
who  pursues  his  career  in  a  decided  'business'  frame  of  mind,  .  .  . 
keen  for  the  main  chance,  ready  to  advertise  his  wares  and  advance  his 
trade,  eager  for  new  markets,  a  devotee  of  statistically  measured  success. 
At  the  best,  he  loses  with  advancing  years  that  mellow  ripening  of  the 
scholar,  lays  aside  all  too  willingly  the  protecting  aegis  of  his  ideals  and 
his  enthusiasm,  and  fails  to  maintain  in  his  activity  the  very  vital  quality 
that  appreciative  students  should,  and  commonly  do  look  upon,  and  look 
back  upon,  as  the  choicest  advantage  of  their  academic  intercourse. 


**See  page   120  et  sq.  for  the  plan  elaborated  by  President  Schurman, 
which  will  probably  be  instituted  in  Cornell  University. 


112  STATUS  OF  THE  FACULTY 

"If  any  one  consequence  of  this  serious  situation  may  be  rated  more 
serious  than  the  rest,  it  is  the  effect  of  it  all  upon  the  younger  members 
of  the  instructional  staff.  A  Teutonic  student  of  our  educational  situation 
recently  pointed  out  to  me  this  disastrous  phase  of  our  unadjusted  uni- 
versity arrangements  as  the  most  potent  reason  for  our  unproductiveness 
in  original  effort  and  the  chief  obstacle  to  our  cultural  advance.  He  con- 
trasted the  situation  with  that  of  the  Privat-Docent,  who,  though  with 
most  precarious  income,  found  no  such  hindrance,  when  once  launched 
upon  academic  seas.  .  .  .  That  intense  and  crippling  sense  of  account- 
ability (to  which  President  Pritchett  has  likewise  directed  attention)  is 
all  but  absent  from  the  Privat-Docent' s  career.  It  is  likely  to  crowd  out 
by  its  insistent  demands  almost  every  other  serious  purpose  of  the  young 
instructor." 

Mr.  James  P.  Munroe,  trustee  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  viewing  the  same  internal  conditions,  mentions  also 
an  external  effect  in  public  sentiment  of  far  reaching  consequences 
for  the  future,  and  proposes  plans  for  reorganization,  which  he 
believed  would  be  remedial : 

"It  is  a  common  cry  that  teachers — whether  in  colleges  or  in  schools — 
are  underpaid;  and  the  complaint  (especially  if  one  has  been  a  school 
official)  seems  amply  justified.  The  imperative  need  of  our  American  col- 
lege faculties,  however,  is  not  higher  salaries;  it  is  larger  professional 
authority  and  more  genuine  freedom.  Those  attained,  the  wage  question 
will  take  care  of  itself.  It  is  true  that  teaching  offers  no  such  money 
prizes  as  does  law  or  medicine;  nevertheless,  the  average  professor  is  in 
many  ways  better  situated  than  the  average  lawyer  or  physician.  Despite 
this  patent  fact,  young  men  of  power  and  ambition  scorn  what  should  be 
reckoned  the  noblest  of  professions,  not  because  that  profession  condemns 
them  to  poverty,  but  because  it  dooms  them  to  a  sort  of  servitude.  .  .  . 

"The  [salaried]  teacher  serves  the  public  and  must  rest,  therefore,  under 
some  of  a  servant's  disabilities.  Yet,  without  impairing  the  proper  powers 
of  trustees,  it  is  possible,  I  believe,  to  give  teachers — or  rather  to  restore 
to  them — so  much  of  authority,  dignity,  and  independence  as  shall  raise 
teaching  to  a  position  where  it  will  commend  itself  to  the  most  ambitious 
and  best-trained  youth.  .  .  . 

"Why  does  the  very  fountain  of  our  higher  life  present  this  paradox? 
Mainly,  I  think,  because  the  European  universities  grew  from  within, 
while  those  of  this  country  have  been  established  from  without.  Both 


STATUS   OF  THE   FACULTY  113 

business  and  political  experience  have  taught  men  of  the  world  that  the 
quickest  and  least  troublesome  way  to  solve  administrative  problems  is  to 
give  as  free  a  hand  as  possible  to  some  man  with  brains,  with  tact,  with 
power  of  initiative,  of  leadership,  and  of  persuasion — with,  in  short,  those 
peculiar  abilities  which  distinguish  the  generals  of  our  intricate  twentieth 
century  enterprises.  .  .  .  They  have  their  staff  in  the  several  admin- 
istrative officers,  such  as  deans  and  registrars;  .  .  .  and  the  work  of 
the  great  machine,  through  committees,  sub-committees,  and  automatic 
methods  of  reporting,  is  as  smooth-running,  and  sometimes,  I  fear,  almost 
as  impersonal  as  a  well-developed  mercantile  establishment.  .  .  .  Mere 
information,  lesson-hearing,  examinations,  become  paramount;  scholarship 
and  character  are  well-nigh  forgotten,  being  impossible  to  register  by  even 
the  most  elaborate  machinery.  .  .  . 

"I  would  advocate  the  creation  in  every  board  of  trustees  of  a  new 
standing  committee.  This  committee  should  be  most  carefully  chosen,  and 
its  duty  should  be  to  confer,  at  stated  and  frequent  intervals,  with  a  like 
standing  committee  of  the  faculty,  selected  freely  by  that  body  itself. 
And  I  would  advise,  further,  that  this  conference  committee  be  distinct, 
if  possible,  from  that  executive  committee  which  I  have  called  the  presi- 
dent's cabinet,  and  that  no  legislation  of  any  consequence  should  be  passed 
by  the  executive  committee  or  by  the  trustees  as  a  whole  without  the 
concurrence  of  this  joint  committee.  And — at  least  so  far  as  relates  to 
questions  having  any  educational  bearing — I  would  have  it  understood 
that  the  joint  committee  should  not  concur  until  the  proposed  action  had 
been  submitted  to  the  faculty  as  a  whole,  had  been  debated,  if  so  desired, 
before  the  standing  committee  and  the  executive  committee  sitting  in 
joint  session,  and  had  been  approved  by  at  least  a  majority  of  the  teaching 
staff. 

"Such  a  general  plan  (the  details  of  which,  needless  to  say,  would 
differ  with  each  college)  could  not  fail,  it  seems  to  me,  to  increase  the 
educational  efficiency  of  a  college  to  an  extraordinary  degree  by  coordi- 
nating the  views  of  those  without  and  those  within  the  daily  routine  of 
teaching;  by  establishing  a  clear  understanding,  in  each  body,  of  the 
other's  problems;  by  relieving  the  executive  of  a  substantial  portion  of  his 
crushing  load  through  increasing  the  legislative  and  administrative  respon- 
sibility of  the  faculty;  and,  not  least,  by  making  that  faculty — without 
adding  to  its  legal  powers — a  body  coordinate  with,  instead  of  subordinate 
to,  the  board  of  trustees.  Unless  American  college  teachers  can  be  assui-ed 
by  some  such  change  as  this  that  they  are  no  longer  to  be  looked  upon 
as  mere  employes,  our  universities  will  suffer  increasingly  from  a  dearth 


STATUS  OF  THE  FACULTY 

of  strong  men  and  teaching  will  remain  outside  the  pale  of  really  learned 
professions.  As  I  said  in  the  beginning,  the  problem  is  not  one  of  wages; 
for  no  university  can  ever  become  rich  enough  to  buy  the  independence  of 
any  man  who  is  really  worth  the  purchasing." 

Evidently  trustee  Mimroe  knows  much  of  inner  conditions,  and 
in  his  proposition  that  coordination,  not  subordination,  should 
characterize  the  relation  between  faculty  and  board  of  trustees,  he 
states  the  central  principle  of  needed  reforms.  His  plan  doubt- 
less contemplated  a  large  and  complex  governing  board  and  one 
compact  faculty.  The  Corporation  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology,  of  which  Mr.  Munroe  is  a  member,  has  fifty-one 
members,  being  about  one-half  the  size  of  the  faculty.  Applica- 
tions of  the  fundamental  principle  to  a  simpler  and  smaller  board 
and  to  complex  and  larger  faculties  could  be  readily  suggested. 
The  terms  of  the  plan  as  he  states  it  seem  too  sweeping,  but  he 
was  not  framing  an  ordinance  and  probably  had  in  view  more 
specific  provisions  which  would  make  some  reservations. 

Mr.  Munroe's  discussion  (published  in  Science,  Dec.  29,  1905) 
shows  various  minor  misconceptions.  For  instance,  he  supple- 
ments the  plan  of  organization  stated  above  by  another  proposal 
which,  if  carried  out,  would  be  very  injurious.  It  is,  alas,  noth- 
ing new;  on  the  contrary,  its  practice  has  insidiously  led  some 
boards  of  trustees  to  conduct  business,  and  their  members  to  con- 
duct themselves,  after  the  fashion — though  with  entirely  different 
motives — of  city  aldermen  elected  by  wards.*  He  offers  ("with 
diffidence")  the  second  plan  as  a  means  to  a  most  desirable  end — 
the  trustees  should  know  the  faculty  "as  men."  The  aim  does 
credit  to  head  and  heart,  but  it  would  not  be  expediently  attained 
by  the  means  proposed: 

"This  second  plan  is  to  make  every  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  an 
administrative  officer  in  that  branch  of  the  college  work  (so  far  as  pos- 
sible) which  is  most  congenial  to  him,  giving  him  no  special  individual 
powers  over  his  assigned  department,  but  increasing  his  responsibilities  by 

•Cjf.  page  12. 


STANDING  COMMITTEES  115 

making  him — together  with  one  or  more  of  his  colleagues — the  direct  and 
responsible  channel  of  information  between  that  department  and  the  whole 
board  of  trustees,  by  having  it  formally  understood  that  in  all  matters 
relating  to  his  department  the  trustee  would  be  looked  to  for  reliable 
information  and  responsible  advice." 

In  the  first  place  it  would  be  only  in  very  exceptional  cases  that 
a  regent  would  give  the  time  required  for  any  genuine  fulfill- 
ment of  the  function  proposed.  To  count  upon  "every"  member 
is  practically  absurd.  But  even  if  the  board  of  regents  could  be 
made  up  entirely  of  expert  men  of  leisure,  the  proposed  arrange- 
ment would  pervert  normal  relations.  The  proper  responsibility 
of  the  president  would  be  divided,  and  the  faculty  would  be  dis- 
tracted— one  eye  on  the  half-president  and  the  other  on  his  com- 
plementary "administrative"  trustee.  There  would  be  too  much 
activity  by  some  of  the  trustees,  causing  disastrous  interference 
with  the  president  and  with  their  respective  segments  of  the  fac- 
ulty; and  in  other  cases  other  segments  of  the  work  and  workers 
of  the  institution  would  have  uninformed  or  misinformed  repre- 
sentatives who  would  nevertheless  be  "looked  to"  for  authorita- 
tive guidance.  Such  a  method  would  tend  to  disintegrate  the 
natural  combined  wisdom  of  a  board.  Just  as  when  aldermen  are 
elected  by  wards  the  city  is  seldom  considered  by  the  city  coun- 
cil, and  the  representatives  of  wards  collude  in  a  maze  of  trades 
and  concessions  to  aldermanic  courtesy, — so  a  board  of  regents  (of 
the  usual  size  for  state  universities)  whose  proper  function  is  to 
legislate  with  the  broadest  view,  would  be  disintegrated  into  ex 
parte  advocates,  if  its  members  were  assigned  to  be  representatives 
of  respective  segments  of  educational  work.  Unless  the  members 
of  the  governing  board  are  so  numerous  that  its  full  convocation 
makes  a  large  body  (as  is  the  case  with  some  endowed  institutions), 
or  unless  some  branch  of  the  institution  is  separately  located,  the 
standing  committees  of  its  board  of  regents  should  be  differen- 
tiated for  special  extensive  functions,  not  for  special  segments  of 
the  work  of  the  faculty.  That  is,  each  standing  committee  should 


116  STATUS  OF  THE  FACULTY 

deal  with  the  subject-matter  of  its  assignment  wherever  such  mat- 
ter arises. 

While  condemning  the  second  of  Mr.  Munroe's  plans,  the  good 
purpose  he  imagined  it  might  serve,  should  not  be  lost  sight  of. 
But  no  law  whatever  can  compass  that.  It  is  simply  a  matter  that 
every  regent  ought  to  lay  upon  his  conscience, — to  compass  as  far 
as  he  can  make  opportunities  to  know  the  faculty  "as  men."  The 
direct  responsibilities  of  the  board  of  regents  being  legislation 
and  judging  results,  every  member  needs  not  only  to  understand 
the  true  nature  of  the  institution  abstractly,  but  also  to  know 
concrete  facts.  The  character  of  the  faculty  in  scholarship  and 
in  manhood  are  the  most  significant  of  facts  whereby  a  regent  may 
judge  what  the  institution  really  is,  and  especially  how  truly  suc- 
cessful the  president  has  been. 

Enough  has  been  submitted  to  show  that  American  universities 
have  developed  a  serious  problem  concerning  faculty  participation 
in  university  government.  The  reader  will  notice  that  it  is  mostly 
trustees  and  administrative  officers  who  axe  here  quoted  as  wit- 
nesses to  the  facts  from  which  the  problem  arises.  They  cannot 
be  suspected  of  professional  or  personal  bias  in  advising  the  re- 
striction of  their  own  authority.  This  volume  could  have  been 
rilled  with  bitter  or  despairing  views  of  members  of  faculties, 
which  have  been  published  within  the  last  two  years.  For  ex- 
ample: "If  universities  retain  their  present  meager  salaries  and 
systems  of  autocratic  control,  then  able  men  will  not  embark  on 
such  ill-starred  ships.  They  will  carry  forward  scientific  work  in 
connection  with  industry  and  will  attract  as  apprentices  those  com- 
petent to  learn  the  ways  of  research/'  "The  university  is  a  para- 
site on  the  scholarly  impulse  instead  of  a  stimulus  to  it."  "A  fac- 
tory system  with  a  manager  to  employ  and  discharge  the  instruc- 
tional force  and  bosses  to  keep  each  gang  up  to  a  square  day's 
work  .  .  .  then  the  highest  productive  scholarship  and  crea- 
tive research  must  find  refuge  elsewhere  than  in  such  a  univer- 


STATUS  OF  THE  FACULTY  117 

ftity."  "In  certain  departments  of  certain  universities  instructors 
and  junior  professors  are  placed  in  a  situation  to  which  no  decent 
domestic  servant  would  submit."  "The  faculty  to  which  I  belong, 
meeting  three  times  a  year,  without  power  or  responsibility,  is 
clearly  dedicated  to  futility."  (Science,  May  31,  1912.)  The  con- 
ditions in  the  better  universities  are  not  yet  so  bad  as  such  ex- 
pressions would  suggest. 

Professor  J.  McKean  Cattell's  correspondence  with  299  profes- 
sors "holding  the  most  important  scientific  chairs  in  our  univer- 
sities," summarized  in  successive  issues  of  Science  following  May 
24,  1912,  showed  46  as  favoring  the  practice  usual  in  this  coun- 
try; 69  as  favoring  a  system  in  which  the  faculties  have  greater 
share  in  control,  as  at  Yale  or  Leland  Stanford  or  the  Johns 
Hopkins  Medical  School;  184  as  favoring  a  plan  of  representation 
more  or  less  similar  to  the  one  proposed  by  Professor  Cattell, 
which  presented  some  startling  and  needless  features  likely  to  repel 
experienced  men.  Yet  the  answers  he  received  from  299  experienced 
men  showed  that  "five-sixths  believe  that  there  should  be  a  change 
in  administrative  methods  in  the  direction  of  limiting  the  powers 
of  the  president  and  other  executive  officers,  and  making  them  re- 
sponsible to  those  engaged  in  the  work  of  teaching  and  research." 
He  explains  the  existence  in  academic  circles  of  a  "cynical  attitude 
toward  faculty  meetings,"  as  "one  of  the  sinister  symptoms  re- 
sulting from  the  existing  methods  of  control."  "When  all  im- 
portant matters,"  he  says,  "are  decided  by  administrative  officers 
or  executive  committees  and  only  trivial  questions  are  discussed 
before  the  faculty,  its  meetings  are  likely  to  fall  into  disrepute." 
From  the  299  replies,  he  infers:  "When  eighty-five  per  cent,  of 
those  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  a  given  system  unite  in  hold- 
ing that  it  should  be  altered,  the  case  may  be  regarded  as  strong." 

Advocates  of  the  prevalent  practice  in  the  government  of  uni- 
versities base  their  opposition  to  any  change  primarily  on  the  im- 
practicability of  "town-meeting"  methods  for  faculties  aggregating 


J 


118  FACULTY  PARTICIPATION  IN  GOVERNMENT 

such  numbers  as  have  arisen  in  the  large  universities.  It  seems 
to  them  that  the  drift  into  autocratic  control  has  been  necessary. 
But  a  town-meeting  method  is  not  the  only  alternative.  No  such 
method  is  advocated  except  by  impatient  extremists,  carried  away 
by  misconceived  ideas  of  "democracy."  Prudent  counsellors  advise 
for  the  government  of  the  university  merely  some  system  of  repre- 
sentation, and  approve  direct  methods  only  in  its  unitary  depart- 
ments. Arguments  against  the  participation  by  every  professor  in 
everything  have  no  bearing  upon  any  plan  here  submitted  for 
consideration. 

Faculty  Participation  in  University  Government 

It  is  significant  that  a  thoroughgoing  plan  for  faculty  participa- 
tion in  university  government  has  been  conceived,  and  is  now 
being  applied  in  a  great  university  where  for  more  than  twenty 
years  there  has  been,  perhaps,  the  least  practical  need  for  such 
reorganization.  But  the  experienced  president  and  magnanimous 
man  who  has  taken  this  step  (which  may  mark  a  new  era)  had 
surveyed  the  land,  and  he  knows  that  prevention  is  better  than 
cure.  He  knows  too  that  the  longest  term  of  the  best  president 
is  but  a  little  span  in  the  life  of  the  institution,  and  that  in  doing 
for  others,  however  justly,  things  they  ought  to  do  for  themselves, 
the  ultimate  loss  must  be  greater  than  any  proximate  gain.  The 
Cornell  plan  aims  at  the  maximum  of  faculty  participation  in  in- 
stitutional control  compatible  with  the  American  system.  Pro- 
gressive steps  toward  it  would  be  preferable  in  some  cases. 

President  Schurman  squarely  faced  the  problem  in  his  official 
report  for  1909-10,  and  in  his  last  report,  for  1911-12,  he  sub- 
mitted with  recommendation  for  immediate  adoption  a  fully  elab- 
orated plan.  I  give  several  statements  from  the  1909-10  report, 
which  with  admirable  brevity  and  force  state  the  problem: 

"The  fact  that  there  is  in  American  universities  a  professorial  problem 
itself  shows  that  something  is  seriously  wrong.  The  university  began  as 
a  guild  of  scholars,  and  throughout  the  seven  or  eight  hundred  years  of 


FACULTY  PARTICIPATION  IN  GOVERNMENT  119 

its  history  the  faculty  essentially  constituted  the  university.  .  .  . 
Whatever  organization  may  be  necessary  in  a  modern  American  univer- 
sity the  institution  will  not  permanently  succeed  unless  the  faculty  as  a 
group  of  free  individual  personalities  practically  control  its  operations. 
This  is  said  with  a  full  consciousness  of  the  fact  that  there  is  a  large 
amount  of  business  ancillary  to  the  main  object  of  the  university  which 
members  of  the  faculty  ought  not  to  be  asked  to  perform.  The  point  is 
that  the  men  who  attend  to  this  business  shall  not  use  their  position  to 
subject  the  faculty  to  extrinsic  control  or  influence. 

"As  American  universities  are  now  organized  the  faculty  has  a  partner 
in  the  board  of  trustees,  which,  if  legal  rights  be  asserted,  is  undoubtedly 
predominant;  its  own  administrative  officer  or  dean  may  be  suspected  of 
arrogating  to  himself  the  functions  of  his  colleagues;  and  the  president 
who  as  head  of  the  university  with  powers  and  duties  and  responsibilities 
impossible  to  define  may  acquire  and  exercise  functions  which  properly 
belong  to  the  trustees  or  to  the  faculty  and  of  which  they  have  been 
•deprived.  ...  At  any  rate  American  professors  have  come  to  feel 
that  their  independence  is  imperiled  and  their  proper  influence*  in  the 
university  organization  seriously  impaired  by  the  activity  of  deans,  presi- 
dents, and  trustees.  And  if  the  complainant  is  a  junior  teacher  over 
whom  there  is  a  departmental  head  he  may  declare  that  the  domination 
of  his  colleague  is  more  intolerable  than  any  other  form  of  tyranny  prac- 
ticed in  the  university.  The  offender  may  be  a  trustee,  president,  dean, 
or  director — or  even  the  professor  who  denounces  their  invasion  of  his 
just  rights!" 

President  Schurman  proceeded,  in  that  report,  to  explain  that, 
unless  state  legislatures  were  "ready  to  make  the  scholars  and 
scientist?  who  are  the  soul  of  the  university  its  corporate  body  also 
— as  is  the  case  with  the  ancient  colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge," it  would  be  impossible  to  establish  the  faculty  legally  "as 
the  controlling  power  of  the  university."  He  indicated  that  such 
11  revolutionary  change  is  very  improbable,  and  that  it  would  not 
be  expedient,  in  view  of  the  size  and  complexity  of  a  large  uni- 


*President  Eliot  has  said  that  "most  American  professors  of  good  qual- 
ity" would  feel  such  responsibility,  "as  a  serious  reduction  in  the  attract- 
iveness of  the  scholar's  life  and  the  professional  career."  The  question  is 
a  matter  of  fact,  and  the  weight  of  evidence  sustains  President  Schur- 
man's  statement. 


120  THE  CORNELL  PLAN 

versity  with  its  dozen  different  faculties  knowing  little  of  and 
having  little  to  do  with  one  another's  affairs.  He  pointed  out  that 
in  the  State  of  New  York  a  law  prohibits  a  professor  becoming  a 
trustee  for  the  institution  of  which  he  is  a  member.  [The  plan 
subsequently  prepared  by  him  looks  forward  to  the  amendment  of 
that  law.]  The  report  for  1909-10  went  on  to  show  how  "the  end 
in  view  can  be  accomplished  without  state  legislation  or  even 
without  institutional  reorganization."  Parts  of  President  Schur- 
man's  noble  and  highly  expert  discourse  upon  purely  voluntary 
attitudes  and  efforts  will  be  given  in  the  chapters  dealing  directly 
with  the  president  and  the  faculty.  We  are  here  concerned  with 
what  could  and  should  be  done  in  the  way  of  salutary  ordinances. 
The  practical  working  of  any  system  depends  upon  the  spirit  and 
ability  of  individuals,  but  a  bad  system  of  organization  will  in 
the  long  run  demoralize  the  co-operative  spirit  of  the  group  of 
workers  and  leads  to  the  survival  of  bad  or  weak  individuals.  With 
this  principle  doubtless  in  mind,  President  Schurman  pondered 
the  matter  two  more  years,  and  then  submitted  a  plan  of  reorgani- 
zation which  applies  his  principles  to  the  particular  conditions 
fixed  for  Cornell  University,  until  existing  state  laws  are  changed. 
It  would  be  easy  to  apply  to  simpler  cases  the  essential  ideas 
of  the  following  plan,  presented  in  President  Schurman's  official 
report  for  1911-12: 

The  Cornell  Plan 

"The  present  government  of  American  universities  and  colleges  is  alto- 
gether anomalous.  The  president  and  trustees  hold  the  reins  of  power 
and  exercise  supreme  control  while  the  professors  are  legally  in  the  posi- 
tion of  employes  of  the  corporation.  In  the  best  institutions,  however,  it 
should  be  explicitly  recognized  that  the  status  of  the  professors  is  in 
practice  a  good  deal  better  than  could  be  claimed  as  a  matter  of  mere 
legal  right.  ...  In  the  best  American  universities  all  educational 
matters  have  been  either  formally  or  by  tacit  consent  delegated  by  the 
trustees  to  the  faculties  for  authorization  and  final  disposition.  The  place 
of  the  faculty  as  the  sole  educational  authority  of  the  university  may  be 
considered  established,  even  though  in  some  reputable  universities  the 


THE   CORNELL   PLAN  121 

board  of  trustees  reserves  the  right  of  veto  or  revision.  Certainly  in 
Cornell  University  the  supremacy  of  the  Faculty  in  all  educational  mat- 
ters has  been  maintained  for  a  score  of  years,  and  professorial  tenure  of 
office  is  permanent  and  secure.  Furthermore,  the  right  to  absolute  free- 
dom of  thought  and  speech  for  all  members  of  the  Faculty  has  been  vigor- 
ously asserted  and  constantly  enjoyed. 

"It  should,  therefore,  be  candidly  acknowledged  that  a  professor  who 
enjoys  a  life-tenure  of  office,  who  is  absolutely  free  to  think  and  speak 
and  write  what  he  believes  to  be  the  truth,  and  who  is  a  member  of  a 
body  which  controls  the  educational  administration  of  the  university,  is 
already  ia  possession  and  enjoyment  of  the  highest,  best,  and  most  vital 
things  which  inhere  in  his  calling  and  function.  Yet  while  all  this  is 
true  the  professor  may  be  dissatisfied  with  the  other  conditions  under 
which  he  is  compelled  to  do  his  work.  And  this  is  undoubtedly  the  case 
in  An'erica  .  .  . 

"What  the  American  professor  wants  is  the  same  status,  the  same 
authority,  the  same  participation  in  the  government  of  his  university  as  I 
his  colleague  in  England,  in  Germany,  and  in  other  European  countries 
already  enjoys.  He  chafes  at  being  under  a  board  of  trustees  which  in 
his  most  critical  moods  he  feels  to  be  alien  to  the  Republic  of  Science  and 
Letters.  Even  in  his  kindliest  moods  he  cannot  think  that  board  repre- 
sentative of  the  university.  For  the  university  is  an  intellectual  organ- 
ization, con  posed  essentially  of  devotees  of  knowledge — some  investigating, 
some  con-n.umcating,  some  acquiring — but  all  dedicated  to  the  intellectual 
life.  To  this  essential  fact  the  American  professor  wants  the  government 
of  his  university  to  conform.  And  he  criticises  presidents  and  boards  of 
trustees  because  under  the  existing  plan  of  government  they  obstruct  the 
realizatior  of  this  ideal — nay,  worse,  actually  set  up  and  maintain  an 
alien  ideal,  the  ideal  of  a  business  corporation  engaging  professors  as 
employes  and  controlling  them  by  means  of  authority.  .  .  . 

"What  is  needed  in  American  universities  today  is  a  new  application 
of  the  principle  of  representative  government.  The  faculty  is  essentially 
the  university;  yet  in  the  governing  boards  of  American  universities  the 
faculty  is  without  representation.  The  only  ultimately  satisfactory  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  the  government  of  American  universities  is  the 
concession  to  the  professoriate  of  representation  in  the  board  of  trustees 
or  regents,  and  these  representatives  of  the  intellectual  which  is  the  real 
life  of  the  university,  must  not  be  mere  ornamental  figures;  they  should 
be  granted  an  active  share  in  the  routine  administration  of  the  institution. 


122  THE  CORNELL  PLAN 

"How  could  such  a  reform  be  carried  out  in  Cornell  University?  [The 
Board  of  Trustees  of  Cornell  University  is  a  large,  complex  body.  Its 
members  are  appointed  in  various  ways,  for  various  terms.  It  has  thirty- 
nine  meitibers.  Nearly  half  of  the  thirty-nine  members,  excluding  ex-officio 
members,  are  appointed  by  co-optation  of  the  Board.  The  trustees  ap- 
pointed by  the  board  number  three  annually.  It  is  the  custom  to  re-elect 
when  their  term  expires.] 

"Nov/  in  case  of  the  death  or  resignation  of  one  of  these  co-optatively 
elected  trustees,  the  Board  might,  without  any  change  in  the  charter,  ask 
the  professoriate  to  select  a  candidate  for  the  vacant  position  and  then 
formally  elect  the  candidate  thus  recommended.  This  process  might  be 
repeated  till  the  professors  had  designated  one-third  of  the  trustees  now 
elected  by  the  Board,  and  thereafter  professorial  representation  might 
remain  in  that  ratio. 

"For  the  purpose  of  such  representation  it  would  probably  be  wise  and 
expedient  to  divide  the  professorial  electorate  into  groups,  each  of  which 
should  elect  one  trustee.  Only  full  professors  would  have  the  suffrage, 
as  only  full  professors  hold  permanent  appointments.  [The  assignment  of 
t'ie  electorate  to  the  various  faculties  of  Cornell's  nine  or  ten  colleges  and 
schools,  one  of  which  (part  of  the  Medical  College)  is  situated  in  New 
York  City.  The  faculties  of  Cornell  University  aggregate  nearly  seven 
hundred  members,  who  were  divided  into  six  groups  for  the  representation.] 

"This  plan  would  give  the  professors  a  share  in  the  government  of  the 
University  through  the  voice  and  vote  of  their  own  elected  representatives, 
who  (unless  an  unalterable  State  law*  forbids)  should  preferably  be  mem- 
bers of  the  Faculty.  But  this  injection  of  professorial  trustees  into  the 
Board  would  be  a  somewhat  slow  process,  if,  as  is  here  recommended,  it 
took  effect  only  when  vacancies  occurred  by  death  or  resignation  in  trustee- 
ships now  filled  by  co-optation  of  the  Board.*  There  is,  however,  another 
measure  of  relief  which  could  and  should  be  forthwith  adopted, 
and  which  should  continue  in  operation  whether  the  privilege  of  repre- 
sentatioi-  in  the  Board  of  Trustees  be  conceded  or  denied  to  the  pro- 
fessoriate. 

"While  the  Faculties  of  the  University  control  educational  affairs  they 
have,  under  the  statutes,  nothing  to  do  with  the  appointment  of  teachers, 
the  appropriation  of  funds,  or  other  business  vitally  connected  with  the 


'Referring  to  the  law  mentioned  on  page  119. 
•Referring  to  custom  of  re-election  mentioned  above. 


THE    CORNELL   PLAN  123 

life  and  work  of  the  institution  or  the  standing  and  efficiency  of  the 
several  departments.  Here,  again,  it  is  true  that  practice  is  more  con- 
siderate than  theory  or  ordinance.  For  in  case  of  appointments  the  Presi- 
dent makes  no  nominations  to  the  Board  without  previous  conference  and 
practical  agreement  with  the  professors  in  the  department  or  allied  de- 
partments concerned.  The  time,  however,  has  now  arrived  to  codify  this 
practice  and  establish  it  as  a  matter  of  professorial  right.  And  at  the 
same  time  the  right  of  the  professors  to  share  in  other  ways  in  the  govern- 
ment and  administration  of  the  faculties  or  colleges  to  which  they  belong, 
and  so  far  as  practicable  of  the  entire  University  itself,  needs  to  be  spe- 
cifically recognized  and  formally  confirmed. 

"Towards  this  goal  the  University  has  been  gradually  tending  for  some 
years  past.  There  may  not  have  been  a  distinct  consciousness  of  it  in 
the  general  mind  of  the  academic  community,  but  there  has  been  a  vague 
yearning  against  a  background  of  dissatisfaction  and  a  foreground  of  hope. 
The  situation  will  be  brought  to  the  consciousness  of  itself  and  crystallized 
in  and  through  the  idea  and  program  of  professorial  participation  in  the 
management  and  control  of  the  University. 

"The  plan  to  be  proposed  is  the  modification  and  extension  of  an  idea 
and  organization  already  in  successful  operation.  Professors  sit,  deliber- 
ate, and  vote  with  trustees  in  the  administrative  councils  which  manage 
the  affairs  of  the  University  Library  and  of  the  Medical  College  in  New 
Yoric.  The  professors  are  elected  by  their  colleagues  for  a  term  of  two 
or  three  years,  and  the  trustees  are  similarly  chosen  by  the  Board  of 
Trustees.  These  councils  are  merely  advisory  bodies  whose  resolutions 
come  as  recommendations  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  or  to  the  Executive 
Committee,  but  in  practice  these  recommendations  of  the  men  selected  by 
the  Board  and  by  the  Faculty  to  keep  in  intimate  touch  with  the  affairs 
of  those  great  departments  of  the  University  and  to  dispose  of  them  in 
the  combined  light  of  business  and  educational  experience,  are  regarded 
by  the  Board  as  expressions  of  the  highest  wisdom  available  under  the 
circumstances  and  are  regularly  approved,  or,  if  not  approved  at  once, 
merely  referred  back  in  special  cases  for  further  consideration  in  view  of 
some  new  contingency  or  some  unforeseen  bearing  upon  the  general  policy 
of  the  University.  .  .  . 

"The  President  recommends  that  a  council  of  substantially  this  type 
be  as  soon  as  possible  established  for  every  college  in  Cornell  Univer- 
sity. .  .  .  Whether  the  professorial  members  of  the  council  outnumber, 
or  are  outnumbered  by,  the  trustee  members  is  not  a  matter  of  any  con- 


124  THE   CORNELL   PLAN 

sequence-  if  only  it  be  understood  that  this  is  a  scheme  devolving  genuine 
responsibility  upon  the  professors  for  the  administration  and  government 
of  their  collegiate  unit  of  the  University.  If  these  councils  are  in  practice 
to  be  as  independent  of  the  Executive  Committee,  and  even  of  the  full 
Board,  as  the  Medical  College  Council  in  New  York  City,  it  will  prob- 
ably be  found  necessary  to  allocate  annually  fixed  portions  of  the  income 
of  the  University  to  the  different  colleges.  And  with  the  existing  dis- 
tribution of  funds  as  basis  this  assignment  should  not  be  an  impossible 
task. 

"This  is  a  plan  of  partnership  between  trustees  and  professors  for  the 
government  and  administration  of  the  University.  It  is  not  the  German 
system,  which  has  no  board  of  trustees,  nor  the  English  system,  in  which 
the  professors  are  the  corporation,  but  it  is  a  modification  of  the  American 
system  in  which  the  trustees  voluntarily  invest  the  professors  with  a-  share 
of  their  own  powers  and  functions,  devolving  on  them  corresponding 
responsibilities,  and  guarantee  them  the  maximum  of  authority,  inde- 
pendence, and  institutional  control  which  seems  compatible  with  the 
American  idea  of  university  organization  and  government. 

"To  these  councils  would  be  assigned  the  duty  of  dealing  with  all  busi- 
ness of  every  kind  affecting  the  several  colleges.  Whatever  business  now 
comes  before  the  Executive  Committee  or  the  Board  of  Trustees  affecting 
Sibley  College  or  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences  or  any  other  college  of 
the  University  would  be  taken  up  by  the  appropriate  council  and  settled 
in  the  form  of  resolutions  which  would  be  sent  to  the  trustees  for  final 
approval  and  ratification.  In  time  the  councils  would  undoubtedly  be 
empowered  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  to  dispose  definitely  of  routine  busi- 
ness and  minor  affairs  reporting  only  their  action  to  the  trustees.  .  .  . 

"Not  only  should  the  term  of  office  of  professorial  members  of  the  council 
be  limited,  but  professors  should  be  ineligible  for  more  than  one  re-election. 
The  object  of  this  restriction  is  to  keep  the  faculty  in  general  in  close 
touch  with  the  council.  And  the  President  should  be  required  (as  he  is 
not  now  in  the  case  of  the  Medical  College  Council)  to  submit  to  the  council 
all  nominations)  for  appointments  in  order  that  they  may  be  voted  on  and 
the  record  of  the  vote  sent  to  the  Board  of  Trustees.  For  the  reform 
here  discussed  involves  the  surrender  of  power  not  only  by  the  trustees 
but  also  by  the  President,  the  supreme  object  being  to  secure,  by  means 
of  the  representative  system  applied  to  faculties,  effective  professorial 
participation  in  the  administration  and  government  of  the  University. 

"The   President   recommends   that   the   foregoing  scheme   for    taking  the 


PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS  125 

professoriate  into  partnership  with  the  trustees  in  the  government  and 
administration  of  the  University  by  means  of  college  councils  composed  of 
representatives  of  both  be  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  at  the  earliest 
practicable  date.  Some  features  of  the  scheme  may  need  modification,  but 
it  will  be  easy  to  determine  what  changes  are  advisable  after  trustees  and 
professors  have  got  together  in  councils  for  the  transaction  of  the  business 
of  the  different  collegiate  units  of  the  University. 

"A  further  step  in  the  same  direction  should  also  be  taken  at  the  present 
time.  Under  the  existing  statutes  the  Deans  of  the  Faculties  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  Board  of  Trustees  on  the  nomination  of  the  President.  The 
Faculty  has  indeed  some  voice  in  the  matter,  for  it  votes  on  the  nomina- 
tion of  the  President  and  sends  the  record  of  its  vote  to  the  Board  of 
Trustees.  But  the  time  has  arrived  when  the  right  of  the  Faculty  to 
select  its  own  chief  officer  should  be  recognized  and  confirmed.  The  Presi- 
dent recommends  that  the  statute  be  amended  so  as  to  invest  the  Faculty 
with  exclusive  power  in  this  regard." 

Practicable  Solutions 

The  Cornell  Plan  provides  for  the  faculty,  as  President  Schur- 
nian  says,  the  maximum  of  authority,  independence,  and  institu- 
tional control  compatible  with  the  American  system  of  university 
organization.  Progressive  steps  toward  such  a  result  would  be 
preferable  to  the  full  measure  in  some  cases,  and,  evidently,  only 
its  principles,  not  its  particular  arrangements,  apply  to  most  cases. 

A  feasible  application  of  the  principles  to  a  typical  state  uni- 
versity having  a  board  of  regents  of  about  nine  members,  and 
six  or  seven  different  faculties  for  its  respective  colleges  and  schools, 
is  suggested  for  the  convenience  of  the  reader,  as  either  a  point 
of  rest  or  a  starting  point  for  his  own  judgment.  This  sugges- 
tion comprises  two  distinct  parts, — one  to  secure  a  reasonable  co- 
operation between  board  of  regents  and  faculty,  the  other  to  ad- 
just relations  between  president  and  faculty : 

(a)   The  board  of  regents  could  invite  representatives  of  the 
faculty  to  sit  with  it  during  sessions  in  which  business  involving  \\ 
the  main  objects  of  the  university  is  considered.     There  is  other 
business  ancillary  to  those  objects  (investment  of  permanent  funds, 


126  PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS 

etc.)  for  which  the  faculty  has  no  responsibility,  and  in  which  it 
need  have  no  part:  the  principle  stated  by  President  Schurman 
is,  that  "the  men  who  attend  to  this  business  shall  not  use  theii 
position  to  subject  the  faculty  to  extrinsic  control."  The  repre- 
sentatives of  the  faculty,  under  present  laws,  could  have  only 
voice  without  voting  power,  but  that  should  be  sufficient.  Each  of 
suitable  divisions  of  the  general  faculty  would  elect  one  represent- 
ative, except  that  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences  should  elect 
two,  one  chosen  by  the  teachers  of  philosophy  and  the  humanities 
and  social  sciences,  the  other  by  the  teachers  of  mathematics  and 
the  physical  sciences.  The  term  of  office  should  be  two  years  with 
ineligibility  for  more  than  one  consecutive  re-election.  Only  full 
professors  and  associate  professors  should  be  eligible;  but  all  mem- 
bers of  each  faculty  appointed  for  more  than  one  year  should  vote 
in  choosing  its  representative,  or  the  representative  of  the  divi- 
sion in  which  it  might  be  included. 

The  joint  council  of  representatives  of  faculty  and  board  for 
each  of  the  divisions  of  the  university,  recommended  for  Cornell, 
would  be  inexpedient  and  superfluous  for  a  comparatively  small 
and  compact  board  of  regents.  The  main  purpose  of  those  coun- 
cils in  the  Cornell  plan  would  be  fulfilled  by  the  second  part  of 
the  proposal  here  submitted: 

(b)  The  faculty  of  each  college  or  school  should  elect  a  suitable 
(small)  number  of  representatives  including  its  representative  to 
the  board  of  regents  and  its  dean,  to  constitute  a  council  for  that 
college.  Qualifications  and  terms  should  be  the  same  as  for  rep- 
resentatives to  the  board  of  regents.  The  council  for  the  general 
faculty  should  consist  of  all  the  representatives  to  the  board  of 
regents  and  its  dean,  and,  if  desired,  not  more  than  three  mem- 
bers at  large  elected  by  the  general  faculty.  These  councils  would 
supercede  the  executive  committees  of  faculties,  now  in  vogue. 

Measures  might  arise  indifferently  in  council  or  in  faculty. 
Action  within  its  jurisdiction  taken  by  any  council  should  have 
force  until  and  unless  annulled  by  its  faculty,  and  all  acts  should 


PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS  127 

bo  reported  to  its  faculty.  Proper  restrictions  should  also  be  pro- 
vided; for  example,  should  requirements  for  degrees  be  enacted 
only  by  the  general  faculty?  Either  the  president  or  its  council 
should  have  power  to  call  each  faculty  to  convene  in  special  ses- 
sion. The  faculty's  dean  might  also  have  that  power  independently 
of  the  council.  The  regular  chairman  of  each  council  might  be 
the  dean  of  its  faculty,  or  a  chairman  elected  by  the  council,  though 
the  president  when  present  might  preside  if  he  desired  to  do  so.* 
It  would  be  well  to  have  the  same  secretary  for  all  the  faculties 
and  for  the  council  of  the  general  faculty,  who  should  report  to 
the  general  faculty  all  important  acts  of  the  faculty  of  each  college 
and  school,  and  all  the  acts  of  the  council  of  the  general  faculty. 

Every  teacher  should  have  the  right  to  sit  with  his  proper  fac- 
ulty and  should  have  the  privilege  of  the  floor,  but  only  pro- 
fessors and  instructors  appointed  for  more  than  one  year  should 
vote.  If  the  total  number  of  professors  and  instructors  in  the  uni- 
versity would  make  a  general  faculty  of  a  size  too  cumbersome  for 
effective  operation,  membership  in  the  general  faculty  should  be 
correspondingly  restricted.  Such  is  the  case  with  the  larger  uni- 
versities: the  average  number  of  professors  and  instructors  in  the 
dozen  largest  is  over  four  hundred.  There  would  be  self-adjust- 
ing compensations  for  those  excluded  from  the  general  faculty, 
if  more  and  more  independence  in  their  own  affairs  be  given  the 
larger  colleges  and  schools  as  membership  in  the  general  faculty 
becomes  limited  to  higher  ranks  of  the  professoriate.  As  the  total 
number  in  the  teaching  staffs  goes  beyond  five,  six,  or  seven  hun- 
dred, the  general  faculty  might  well  become  a  senate  of  the 
university,  and  be  composed  of  only  full  professors  and  associate 
professors.  Such  a  senate  should  have  high  but  restricted  juris- 
diction, and  the  respective  faculties  of  the  (in  this  case)  very 
large  divisions  of  the  university  should  be  autonomous  for  all 
ordinary  business.  Whether  or  not  legislation  affecting  exclu- 
sively only  one  college  or  school  may  be  enacted,  without  the  ap- 

*See  page  225. 


128  PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS 

proval  of  its  faculty,  by  the  general  faculty;  and  whether  or  not 
some  such  legislation  (e.  g.,  its  entrance  or  degree  requirements) 
must  be  either  enacted  or  approved  by  the  general  faculty,  are 
questions*  to  be  decided  largely  according  to  the  size  and  com- 

*I  have  observed  various  organic  statutes  upon  such  points  that  represent 
either  confused  thought  or  inaccurate  expression.  A  statute  of  this  kind, 
together  with  an  interpretation  of  its  vague  terms,  causes  a  peculiar  situa- 
tion in  a  well  known  university.  I  did  not  verify  in  any  records  the 
account  of  the  interpretation,  received  from  a  full  professor  in  the  institu- 
tion; the  main  point  is  the  law  as  it  is  written. 

The  organic  statutes  of  a  certain  state  university  include,  as  printed 
in  its  catalog:  "Legislation  exclusively  affecting  any  department  [used 
in  the  sense  of  college  or  school — see  page  76]  shall  originate  in  the  faculty 
of  that  department  and  in  no  other  faculty,  but  shall  not  be  effective  until 
approved  by  the  General  Faculty.  Action  affecting  more  than  one  depart- 
ment may  be  taken  only  by  the  General  Faculty.  No  regulation  concern- 
ing requirements  for  admission  or  degrees  shall  become  operative  until 
approved  by  the  General  Faculty."  It  happened  that  the  faculty  of  Arts 
and  Sciences  studied  out  a  measure  affecting  requirements  for  degrees, 
which  was  submitted  in  the  general  faculty.  The  general  faculty  enacted 
the  measure.  Certain  opponents  consulted  the  president,  contending  that 
the  procedure  had  been  illegal,  and  the  president  sustained  that  contention. 

It  is  not  quite  clear  which  of  two  contradictory  theories  may  have  been 
adopted  in  so  construing  the  words  of  the  statute:  (1)  It  probably 
was  contended  that  the  degree  requirements  for  a  division  of  the  univer- 
sity "exclusively  affect"  that  division  and  do  not  concern  the  university 
as  a  whole,  and  that  therefore  the  general  faculty  had  no  authority  under 
the  provision,  "Action  affecting  more  than  one  department  may  be  taken 
only  by  the  General  Faculty";  also  that  the  provision,  "No  regulation 
concerning  requirements  for  degrees  shall  become  operative  until  approved 
by  the  General  Faculty,"  did  not  assign  degree  requirements  to  the  juris- 
diction of  the  general  faculty,  but  that  the  word  "approved"  should  be 
construed  as  confining  the  power  of  the  general  faculty  solely  to  approving 
or  disapproving  requirements  sent  to  it  piecemeal  by  the  division  faculties; 
and  finally,  that  some  parts  of  the  legislation  in  question  had  not  "orig- 
inated" in  the  several  faculties  respectively  "exclusively  affected."  Or 
(2)  it  may  have  been  contended  that  the  procedure  was  illegal  because 
the  legislation  had  not  "originated"  in  the  general  faculty.  This  is  im- 
probable, because  it  could  be  held  only  by  interpreting  "shall  not  become 
operative  until  approved"  to  mean  simply  "shall  be  enacted  only  by," 
together  with  an  analogical  stretching  of  the  provision,  "legislation  exclu- 
sively affecting  a  department  shall  originate  in  the  faculty  of  that  depart- 
ment," to  mean  "legislation  exclusively  within  the  jurisdiction  of  any 
faculty  shall  originate  in  that  faculty."  We  may  assume  that  the  con- 
struction first  stated  was  adopted.  The  episode,  however,  is  immaterial; 


PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS  129 

plexity  of  the  institution,  and  there  is  no  need  that  the  ordinance 
be  the  same  for  every  division  of  the  university.  Uniformity  for 
disparate  conditions  is  one  of  the  ear-marks  of  maladministration. 
Of  course,  action  controling  more  than  one  faculty  can  be  taken 
only  by  the  general  faculty. 

The  main  thing  in  the  second  part  of  this  plan  is  a  proper  ad- 
justment of  relations  between  the  president  and  the  faculties. 
Every  faculty  should  always  have  been  so  treated  by  regents  and 
president  that  it  would  feel  free  to  send  to  either  any  recommen- 
dation it  deemed  important  and  had  deliberately  adopted.  Dis- 
organization is  profound  where  that  is  not  the  case.  But  this 
mere  privilege  of  petition  as  it  were,  is  not  enough.  It  is  the 
ordinary  experience  of  many  faculties,  to  be  informed  of  final  en- 


it  merely  illustrates  one  of  many  absurd  predicaments  involved  in  a  stat- 
ute conceived  or  expressed  in  any  such  fashion. 

The  point  to  be  controlled  by  such  a  statute  is  the  jurisdiction  for  final 
action.  The  word  originate  ought  not  to  be  employed  at  all.  In  a  par- 
liamentary sense  a  matter  originates  in  a  legislative  body  when  it  is  moved 
in  it  by  a  member  thereof.  The  origin  of  an  idea  in  an  historical  sense  is 
absurdly  irrelevant.  Yet  the  statute  we  are  considering  indicates  a  delib- 
erate intention  tantamount  to  prohibiting  the  right  of  petition  or  sug- 
gestion by  one  special  faculty  to  another  or  to  the  general  faculty.  It  is 
to  be  observed  that  the  quoted  statute  deprives  every  division  faculty  of 
authority  to  conclude  any  measure  whatsoever, — the  words  are,  "legisla- 
tion exclusively  affecting  any  department  shall  not  be  effective  until  ap- 
proved by  the  General  Faculty";  and  legislation  not  exclusively  affecting 
the  division  cannot  '"originate,"  that  is  be  considered,  in  it  at  all.  Hence 
this  specimen  of  a  certain  university's  organic  law,  either  by  intention  or 
by  loose  thinking  and  lack  of  the  command  of  language  necessary  for 
framing  a  good  law,  makes  the  faculty  of  arts  and  sciences,  for  instance, 
powerless  to  do  anything  except  petition  the  general  faculty,  and  makes 
the  general  faculty  powerless  to  do  anything  affecting  exclusively  a  divi- 
sion faculty  except  "approve"  measures  "originated"  by  that  divi- 
sion faculty.  Nothing  is  said  about  amendments,  and  I  dare  not  surmize. 
A  curious  crux  would  be  involved:  all  legislation  exclusively  affecting  a 
special  faculty  must  originate  in  it;  when  submitted  to  the  general  faculty 
for  the  required  approval,  if  an  amendment  were  proposed  there,  could 
the  question  even  be  referred  back  to  the  special  faculty?  Could  the 
particular  faculty  act  on  any  matter  not  "originated"  by  it?  All  this 
is  merely  an  example  of  the  troubles  and  absurdities  involved  in  laws 
fabricated  in  the  manner  of  this  specimen. 


130  PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS 

actments  affecting  their  work  without  any  previous  intimation,  to 
say  nothing  of  previous  consultation  with  and  approval  by  them. 
The  wisest  presidents  do  not  lead  governing  boards  to  flash  edicts 
to  faculties  in  that  startling  way;  but  there  are  few  faculties  that 
have  not  been  thus  disconcerted,  and  some  are  habituated  to  ex- 
pect nothing  else.  It  would  be  vastly  better  to  recognize  every- 
where in  an  institutional  manner  what  is  now  practiced  merely  as 
an  act  of  grace  and  prudence  in  some  institutions  while  favored 
by  fortune  with  gracious  and  prudent  presidents. 

The  president  should  present  to  each  faculty,  or  to  its  council, 
every  measure  to  be  proposed  by  him  to  the  board  of  regents, 
affecting  that  college  or  school, — and  to  the  general  faculty,  or  to 
its  council,  for  affairs  of  the  entire  university.  The  approval  or 
disapproval  of  the  faculty  should  be  reported  in  writing  to  the 
board  of  regents  by  the  faculty's  representative  to  the  board,  in 
case  the  president  did  not  see  fit  to  withdraw  the  proposal  after 
hearing  the  reasons  for  the  faculty's  dissent.  Minority  opinions 
should  be  similarly  reported  in  the  exceptional  cases  when  that 
might  be  requested  by  the  minority.  If  a  measure  proposed  by 
seme  member  of  a  faculty  or  of  its  council  were  adopted  with  the 
president's  concurrence,  the  procedure  would  be  the  same  as  if  it 
had  originated  with  the  president,  in  case  the  nature  of  the  meas- 
ure required  any  final  action  by  the  board  of  regents.  If  a  meas- 
ure proposed  by  some  member  of  a  faculty  or  of  its  council  were 
adopted  without  the  president's  approval,  the  president's  dissent 
should  be  reported  to  the  board  of  regents  or  to  the  faculty,  ac- 
cording to  the  place  of  origin  and  nature  of  the  measure. 

The  institution  of  these  procedures  would  not  diminish  or  in- 
terfere with  the  proper  leadership  or  necessary  authority  of  the 
president.  On  the  contrary,  the  secrecy  and  surprises  of  the  preva- 
lent procedure  prevent  the  natural  cordiality  and  confidence  that 
the  president  often  deserves,  and  the  character  of  his  influence  is 
degraded  by  suspicions  and  misunderstandings.  Acts  that  would 
have  been  approved  if  understood,  incite  murmurs  and  accusa- 


PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS  131 

tions  against  him  and  also  against  fellow  members  of  the  faculty. 
Bepellant  or  antagonistic  attitudes  spring  up  among  those  who 
would  otherwise  be  co-workers.  The  proposed  procedure  would 
remove  the  main  cause  of  carping  criticism  and  concomitant  slan- 
der, and  it  would  engender  and  foster  a  proper  sense  of  professional 
decorum  and  individual  responsibility  for  self-control  and  intelli- 
gent initiative.  It  is  already  practiced  substantially  by  presidents 
who  invite  and  seek  and  justly  consider  criticism  and  suggestions. 
But  personal  invitation  and  consultation  cannot  secure  the  right 
conditions.  No  matter  how  sincere  the  president  may  be  in  his 
personal  desire  and  effort  to  stir  up  the  members  of  the  faculties 
from  subjection  to  or  dependence  upon  external  judgment  and  con- 
trol, it  is  practically  impossible  to  elicit  the  needed  response  as 
long  as  the  form  of  procedure  is  arbitrary.  It  is  true  that  a  gen- 
uine organizer  of  workers  for  any  sort  of  spiritual  results  should 
have  the  power  of  commurjcating  his  own  feeling  for  the  dignity 
of  individuality,  and  that  sense  of  personal  responsibility  which 
is  essential  to  true  success  in  such  work;  but  so  inveterate  are  the 
suspicions  of  external  control  that  no  mere  personal  influence  can 
transform  the  passive  ranks  into  truly  organized  individuals  aroused 
to  intelligent  co-operation  and  personal  responsibility  for  wise  coun- 
sels, self-criticism,  and  self-control.  Formal  recognition  by  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  existence  of  such  duties  and  opportuni- 
ties is  needed. 

It  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  establish  in  an  institutional  way 
provisions  for  securing  the  advice  of  the  faculty, — with  the  main 
purpose  of  fostering  in  its  members  a  free  interest  in  the  entire 
scope  of  their  joint  professional  work  and  a  sense  of  individual 
responsibility  for  the  right  conduct  of  that  work.  It  is  not  privi- 
leges, but  duties  and  opportunities  of  high  service  that  should  be 
most  considered. 

It  would  be  very  unfortunate  if  the  "concession"  (as  it  is  termed 
by  some)  were  to  be  withheld  until  extorted  by  belligerent  de- 
mands. The  attitude  and  spirit  consequent  to  such  an  origin 


132  PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS 

might  be  as  obnoxious  to  true  organization  as  the  inert  and  stag- 
nant condition,  and  might  lead  to  vicious  uses  of  privileges  wrested 
from  "oppressors."  The  less  tumult  and  insistence  for  rights  and 
privileges  manifested  in  the  faculty,  the  more  readily  and  confi- 
dently should  governing  board  and  president  institute  reasonable 
arrangements  for  the  faculty's  participation  in  the  government  of 
the  university.  In  the  work  of  a  university,  satisfactory  results 
will  not  flow  from  promulgated  mandates  concerning  which  the 
professoriate  has  taken  no  previous  thought.  In  a  university  the 
control  should  not  be  an  arbitrary  control  of  a  passive  rank  and 
file,  nor  should  decisions  be  formed  without  the  advice  (and  gen- 
erally the  concurrence)  of  those  who  are  to  perform  the  complex 
and  delicate  work  for  which  the  entire  system  exists.  "Freedom," 
says  Chancellor  Strong,  "is  the  very  breath  and  life  of  a  university 
or  college.  It  is  sensitive  to  any  change  of  atmosphere  or  of 
standards,  for  it,  in  common  with  the  church  and  the  home,  has 
great  influence  upon  the  spiritual  life  of  the  individual  and  the 
community.  If  an  institution  is  independent  at  aE>  u  must  be 
really  independent,  and  must  be  governed  from  within  in  accord- 
ance with  the  unity  of  the  institution."*  John  Stuart  Mill  has 
well  said,  whatever  crushes  individuality  is  despotism  by  whatever 
name  it  be  called. 

It  is  not  a  valid  objection  to  allege  in  any  particular  case,  that 
the  members  of  the  faculty  are  personally  unfit  to  participate  on 
co-ordinate  terms  in  counsels  for  the  government  of  a  university. 
For  if  it  were  true,  it  would  be  equally  true  of  the  persons  who 
had  selected  and  disorganized  the  faculty,  and  all  concerned  would 
need  the  more  to  begin  a  procedure  which  protects  both  sides  from 
misunderstandings  and  tends  to  uplift  and  steady  every  partici- 
pant. "Be  noble  and  the  nobleness  that  lies  in  other  men,  sleep- 

*This  was  said  in  a  different  connection,  but  is  equally  true  as  here 
cited.  Chancellor  Strong  had  been  arguing  against  a  central  board  of 
control,  and  drew  from  the  principles  quoted  the  valid  conclusion  that  a 
university  or  college  requires  "a  governing  board  whose  eye  is  single  to  the 
welfare  of  that  institution  and  no  other." 


PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS  133 

ing  but  never  dead,  will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own."  It 
should  be  candidly  acknowledged  that  many  astonishingly  foolish 
regulations  for  the  government  of  students  do  seem  to  reveal  some 
faculties  as  incompetent  legislators.  But  men  who  have  an  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  these  matters  know  that  such  contemptible 
abuses  usually  originate  with  some  dean  appointed  by  the  presi- 
dent or  some  ill-chosen  committee  appointed  by  the  president  or 
the  president's  dean.  They  know  how  the  measures  are  pressed 
or  slip  through  an  adopting  vote  over  the  faint  protests  of  mem- 
bers who,  though  thoroughly  discouraged  by  present  methods  in 
faculty  meetings,  would  exercise  their  natural  influence  under  a 
different  regime. 

It  will  seem  to  some  that  the  president's  necessary  and  most  es- 
sential authority  might  be  endangered  if  his  nominations  to  the 
board  of  regents  for  advancements  and  new  faculty  appointments 
were  submitted  to  the  council  of  the  faculty,  and  the  council's 
approval  or  dissent  reported  to  the  board.  I  do  not  believe  any 
reservation  needs  to  be  made  for  that  particular  business.  The 
president's  nominations,  duly  explained  in  council,  would  gener- 
ally be  cordially  approved.  In  exceptional  instances  the  advice  of 
members  of  the  council  might  lead  to  some  change  in  the  presi- 
dent's own  opinion.  Only  in  very  rare  cases  would  the  council's 
dissent  have  to  be  reported.  If  that  happened,  the  board  of  re- 
gents must  uphold  the  president.*  But  it  is  far  better  that  the 
council's  rarely  occurring  difference  in  opinion  should  be  known 
in  an  open  and  orderly  way,  than  that  frequent  misunderstand- 
ings of  acts  that  take  the  faculty  by  surprise  should  be  whis- 
pered or  growled  about.  Yet  such  is  the  alternative,  even  though 
the  president  honestly  seeks  the  private  advice  of  individuals  about 
his  recommendations  for  advancements  and  for  rilling  or  making 
vacancies.  If  the  faculty  knew  that  every  nomination  had  been 
explained  to  a  council  chosen  by  themselves.,  they  would  feel  that 

'See  page  204. 


331  PRACTICABLE  SOLUTIONS 

the  president's  proposals  had  been  justified  before  their  own  rep- 
resentatives. This  would  be  sufficient  to  cause  the  reasonable  ma- 
jority to  feel  confident  and  satisfied  with  the  action  taken  in  these 
delicate  affairs.  It  would  be  better  for  the  faculty  to  take  no  ac- 
tion itself,  but  to  make  the  matter  of  approving  presidential  nomi- 
nations a  privileged  order  of  business  in  the  council,  conclusions 
being  reported  to  but  not  subject  to  approval  by  its  faculty.  There 
are  too  many  instructors  and  assistant  professors  in  a  faculty  for 
votes  on  advancements  to  be  appropriately  taken  in  that  body, 
whereas  the  council  would  consist  only  of  full  and  associate  pro- 
fessors. 

In  like  manner,  the  preliminary  data  for  the  annual  budget 
should  be  elaborated  by  the  president  in  consultation  with  the 
council  for  each  faculty — considering  the  reports  and  requests  of 
all  the  deportments  in  that  division.  The  final  adjustments  nec- 
essary to  prepare  the  entire  budget,  as  it  will  be  presented  by  the 
president  to  the  governing  board,  should  be  made  in  consultation 
with  the  council  for  the  general  faculty.  Since  each  of  the 
special  councils  would  have  one  of  its  members  sitting  in  the  gen- 
eral council,  its  views  and  desires  would  be  known  and  under- 
stood in  the  general  council  through  two  channels,  not  only 
through  the  president's  mind.  Continuity  of  information  in  the 
general  council  being  thus  secured,  there  would  usually  be  no  oc- 
casion for  communications  from  the  separate  councils  to  the  board 
of  regents  concerning  the  budget.  If  the  president  rightly  com- 
prehended the  manifold  needs  and  held  clearly  before  himself  and 
his  counsellors  the  total  amount  available,  he  could  put  his  views 
so  convincingly  that  approval  would  naturally  follow,  or  his  own 
first  judgment  on  some  point  would  be  corrected  by  helpful  dis- 
cussion. Sometimes  the  general  council  would  decide  to  recom- 
mend the  modification  of  some  particular  in  the  president's  final 
decisions  for  the  budget,  upon  which  it  could  not  agree  with  him; 
but  it  is  probable  that  complete  agreement  would  usually  be 
reached.  At  all  events,  a  general  confidence  and  satisfaction 


THE    FINAL    RESPONSIBILITY  135 

would  prevail,  which  is  simply  impossible  when  the  president 
merely  receives  departmental  petitions  and  consults  with  indi- 
viduals whom  he  may  call  to  him. 

These  special  functions  of  the  proposed  councils  would  safe- 
guard the  president  against  deplorable  misunderstandings  more 
than  any  other  arrangement  that  could  be  devised.  It  should  be 
feared  only  by  presidents  who  make  unjustifiable  nominations  or 
budgets. 

The  plan  I  have  proposed  seems  to  me  to  be  a  good  and  ade- 
quate one.  It  would  be  truly  remedial,  and  it  would  be  safe. 
Other  good  arrangements.,  if  need  for  more  should  be  experienced, 
might  be  left  to  grow  from  it.  It  has  the  merit  of  simplicity.  It 
has  the  merit,  that  either  or  both  of  its  two  parts  could  be  insti- 
tuted. Its  first  part  could  be  put  into  immediate  operation  by  any 
board  of  regents  disposed  to  recognize  the  faculty  as  a  body  hav- 
ing an  essential  independent  responsibility  to  the  university,  not 
merely  the  responsibility  of  its  members  to  their  employer.  Its 
second  part  could  be  put  into  operation  by  any  president  who 
would  rather  be  a  trusted  leader  than  an  alienated  commander. 
The  system  proposed  would  soon  make  the  test:  do  his  opinions 
receive  favorable  consideration  for  their  merit,  or  must  they  be 
backed  by  his  authority?  No  worthy  president  need  fear  the  test. 

The  Final  Responsibility 

It  is  not  necessary  that  members  of  the  governing  board  should 
judge  or  know  much  about  educational  processes,  or  the  technical 
sides  of  teaching  work.  The  analogy  between  the  board  of  re- 
gents for  a  university  and  a  board  of  directors  for  a  business  en- 
terprise is  very  slight.  The  proper  relation  between  the  former 
and  the  faculty  is  totally  different  from  that  between  the  latter 
and  their  employes.  The  advice  of  industrial  experts  about  uni- 
versity organization  is  often  thoroughly  vitiated  by  misconcep- 
tions of  this  fundamental  point.  But  it  is  incumbent  on  every 
member  of  the  governing  board  of  a  college  or  university  to  know 


13(>  THE    FINAL    RESPONSIBILITY 

as  much  as  he  can  learn  about  organizing  such  an  institution  in 
accordance  with  its  true  and  proper  nature,  and  about  the  main 
tests  of  success  or  failure  in  the  administration  of  the  institution 
as  organized.  His  final  responsibility  is  to  learn  the  truth  about 
those  matters  and  to  act  wisely  and  resolutely  in  accordance  there- 
with. It  is  astonishing  how  often  the  weightier  matters  have  been 
neglected  or  violated  by  regents  and  presidents  entirely  absorbed 
in  securing  funds  for  buildings.  There  is  no  good  reason  why 
the  one  should  have  been  left  undone  in  the  doing  of  the  other. 
If  there  were  any  conflict,  the  weightier  matters  ought  to  be  first 
attended  to;  but  the  development  of  the  physical  plant  would  al- 
ways be  greatly  assisted  by  a  sound  organization  and  due  regard 
for  the  vital  interests  of  the  faculty,  both  personal  and  profes- 
sional. It  is,  therefore,  not  an  excuse  but  only  an  explanation  to 
plead,  as  did  Dr.  Richard  Jones,  Trustee  of  Iowa  College,  in  con- 
gratulating the  University  of  Illinois  on  the  apparent  completion 
of  its  "magnificent  plant" : 

"The  erection  of  the  plant  was  a  work  of  such  paramount  im- 
portance that  the  teaching  professor,  even  though  there  were  scores 
of  him,  occupied  for  the  time  a  place  of  comparative  unimportance. 
But  now  that  the  plant  is  established,  and  due  honor  for  the  great 
work  worthily  bestowed,  there  will  be  leisure  for  observing  that 
a  plant  is  of  small  value  without  the  best  possible  instruction.  And 
thus  it  will  come  about  naturally  and  easily  that  the  individual 
professor  will  come  into  his  own.  The  administration,  no  longer 
under  the  necessity  of  securing  funds  for  new  buildings,  can  now 
devote  its  energies  to  making  attractive  to  the  professor  the  aca- 
demic career,  to  the  professor  who  finds  his  joy  in  life  in  his 
work  as  a  professor  rather  than  in  a  deanship  or  any  form  of  ad- 
ministrative work — especially  affording  him  opportunity  and  leis- 
ure, that  is  freedom  from  mere  drudgery,  for  doing  some  re- 
search work  of  his  own,  which  is  to  the  university  professor  the 
breath  of  life.  .  .  .  And  as  the  development  of  the  University 
of  Illinois  is  typical  of  that  of  many  other  American  universities, 


THE    FINAL    RESPONSIBILITY  137 

except  in  the  unusual  rapidity  of  its  development,  we  may  per- 
haps conclude  that  the  pains  endured  by  the  university  professor 
generally  are  'growing  pains'  and  await  the  day  of  deliverance. 
But  let  us  not  deny  the  pain,  even  on  this  happy  occasion,  when 
evidences  of  wonderful  growth  meet  the  eye  and  statistics  greet  the 
ear  and  the  atmosphere  is  filled  with  the  halo  of  the  greater  glory 
yet  to  dawn.  .  .  .  There  is  probably  not  an  institution  in  all 
this  great  Mississippi  Valley  that  could  offer  a  professorship  which 
would  induce  a  professor,  a  full  professor,  of  Oxford,  for  example, 
to  resign,  even  leaving  out  of  consideration  any  question  of  home 
and  native  land.  Much  yet  remains  to  be  done  to  make  the  aca- 
demic career  as  attractive  and  useful  as  it  is  possible  for  it  to  be." 

But  let  us  take  heart  of  grace  from  an  inspiring  sentence  with 
which  Dr.  Jones  concluded  his  salutation.  It  would  make  a  fitting 
motto  to  be  put  in  letters  of  gold  on  the  walls  of  the  counsel 
chambers  of  university  regencies: 

"Happy  they  who  live  under  an  administration  which  knows, 
which  combines  sweetness  and  light." 

And  over  against  that  saying  of  yesterday,  I  would  put  in  the 
place  of  first  honor  the  immortal  proverb  of  Solomon : 

"Through  wisdom  is  an  house  builded ; 
And  by  understanding  it  is  established: 
And  by  knowledge  shall  the  chambers  be  filled 
With  all  precious  and  pleasant  riches." 


III.    BUSINESS  MANAGEMENT. 

Although  a  college  or  university  cannot  be  administered  in 
the  spirit  or  in  the  manner  of  a  business  concern  without  ceasing 
to  be  a  college  or  university,  intelligent  and  careful  management 
of  its  business  affairs  is  an  imperative  responsibility.  Past  neg- 
lect of  that  responsibility  has  precipitated  throughout  the  whole 
country  a  startled  and  over-accentuated  zeal  for  business  manage- 
ment. Legislatures  are  beginning  to  take  a  hand,  enacting  re- 
formatory measures  well  intended  but  with  ill-considered  provi- 
sions. It  is  therefore  peculiarly  important  for  every  state  insti- 
tution that  its  governing  board  and  chief  executive  should  take 
counsel  for  establishing  without  delay  a  business  management 
properly  adapted  to  the  work  and  purposes  of  the  institution.  If 
this  is  not  done  with  careful  deliberation  and  wisely,  it  is  probable 
that  some  imitation  of  methods  employed  in  manufactories  will 
be  imposed  by  external  law,  or  be  hurriedly  adopted  without 
proper  understanding  of  what  "efficiency"  in  a  college  or  univer- 
sity is. 

Articles  have  been  published  criticizing  the  trustees  of  some 
privately  endowed  colleges  for  carelessness  in  making  investments, 
and  for  unwarranted  encroachments  upon  endowment  funds  to 
meet  current  expenses;  but  those  points  need  no  mention  (as  far 
as  the  writer  knows)  in  reference  to  state  institutions.  For  them, 
the  law  generally  confines  the  investment  of  permanent  funds  to 
specified  securities,  and  prohibits  any  expenditure  from  the  prin- 
cipal of  such  funds  for  any  other  purpose  whatsoever.  The  treas- 
urer is  generally  the  State  Treasurer. 

The  investment  of  endowment  funds  call  for  financial  expe- 
rience and  expert  judgment;  and  the  management  of  productive 
properties  is  a  special  branch  of  business.  Those  matters  are  not 
considered  here.  The  writer  probably  knows  less  of  them  than 
the  committees  who  have  them  in  charge;  there  is  less  neglect  of 


BUSINESS    MANAGEMENT  139 

them,  in  spite  of  knowledge,  than  of  any  other  responsibility  of 
trustees;  and  state  institutions  have  comparatively  little  of  such 
business.  The  business  management  of  a  tax-supported  institu- 
tion concerns  the  proper  and  effective  expenditure  of  given  re- 
sources, accounting  conducive  thereto,  and  the  design  and  use  and 
care  of  physical  structures.  In  the  truest  sense,  the  main  things 
in  the  business  management  of  a  college  or  university  are  not  re- 
ferred to  in  the  ordinary  use  of  the  term  "business  management." 
The  business  of  a  university  being  teaching  and  research,  choice 
of  the  objects  of  those  activities,  the  selection  of  the  men  who  are 
to  perform  the  work,  the  fixing  of  salaries,  etc.,  are  the  main 
things.  In  that  vital  sense  this  entire  study  treats  of  the  business 
management  of  institutions  of  higher  education.  Unless  the 
weightier  matters  are  rightly  managed,  it  is  of  very  secondary  im- 
portance how  the  accounts  are  kept  or  the  buildings  preserved.  In 
the  narrow  sense  of  the  term,  thus  distinguished,  the  business 
management  of  a  college  or  university  is  not  a  thing  to  make 
much  of  a  fuss  about.  Any  man  of  good  sense  and  a  modicum 
of  general  business  experience  who  understands  even  slightly  what 
a  university  ought  to  be  doing  and  knows  what  its  business  affairs 
consist  of,  could  (with  the  help  of  a  competent  accountant)  es- 
tablish a  proper  business  management  as  soon  as  he  gives  attention 
to  the  matter  and  is  given  the  requisite  authority. 

Bookkeeping 

The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  install  a  real  set  of  books,  in  place 
of  the  mere  cash  book  and  collection  of  registers  usually  found. 
In  some  States  methods  employed  in  the  State  Comptroller's  office 
would  require,  in  addition  to  the  useful  books,  the  continued  re- 
porting to  that  office  of  the  jumbled  list  of  vouchers,  worthless 
except  for  its  indication  that  a  total  amount  was  lawfully  ex- 
pended. Also,  the  state  officer  may  have  and  may  occasionally  ex- 
ercise an  authority  to  refuse  or  reduce  some  warrant,  and  thereby 
require  the  making  of  compensating  entries.  But  what  of  it?  It 


140  BOOKKEEPING 

is  "wasted  motion,"  yet  so  insignificant  in  comparison  with  the  se- 
rious waste  caused  by  a  weak  or  foolish  member  of  the  faculty,  or 
by  some  mistaken  interference  on  the  part  of  a  dean  or  president 
with  the  real  work  of  faculty  and  students,  that  the  trouble  is  not 
worth  groaning  about. 

University  officers  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  unduly  dis- 
couraged by  this  trouble  with  the  state  government's  methods  of 
accounting.  Mr.  J.  C.  Christensen,  after  his  appointment  about 
two  years  ago  to  be  Financial  Secretary  of  Kansas  State  Agricul- 
tural College,  visited  many  institutions  in  other  States,  and  made 
a  useful  and  generally  very  sound  report  on  University  Business 
Administration  before  a  Conference  of  Business  Officers  of  the 
Stete  Universities  and  Colleges  of  the  Middle  West,  held  at  Chi- 
coga  in  January,  1912.  He  correctly  reported:  "My  inspection 
has  shown  that  there  are  very  few  States  in  which  the  business 
of  educational  institutions  is  not  hampered  by  obsolete  and  cum- 
bersome methods  of  state  accounting."  But  he  added :  "It  is  im- 
possible for  a  state  institution  to  install  a  satisfactory  system  of 
accounting  unless  modem  methods  prevail  at  the  State  House."  T 
beg  to  differ.  It  is  not  impossible — only  a  little  more  laborious. 
If  your  business  manager  and  his  bookkeepers  do  not  know  how 
to  open  and  keep  the  needed  system  of  books,  and  at  the  same 
time  keep — on  the  side — whatever  may  be  demanded  by  the  prac- 
tice at  the  State  House,  simply  employ  a  competent  accountant  to 
teach  them  how  to  do  it.  But  be  sure  that  the  expert  accountant 
is  not  left  free  to  choose  the  accounts  that  are  to  be  opened.  It  is  for 
the  president  and  business  manager  to  tell  the  accountant,  after 
due  mutual  consultation,  what  they  want  to  know  from  the  books 
of  the  institution,  and  then,  it  is  for  the  expert  to  show  the  book- 
keepers how  to  open  and  keep  a  system  of  books  that  wilf  always 
yield  the  desired  information.  If  left  to  himself  the  expert  account- 
ant might  install  a  system  that  would  be  very  helpful  to  an  automo- 
bile factory,  but  positively  injurious  to  a  university. 

Without  going  into  any  technical  details  of  bookkeeping,  I  may 


BOOKKEEPING  141 

mention  some  of  the  things  that  the  books  of  a  university  ought 
to  be  ready  to  yield  at  a  moment's  notice : 

1.  A  balance  sheet  giving  assets  and  liabilities, — with  support- 

ing schedules. 

2.  A  statement  of  revenue  and  expense  for  every  classification, — 

and  their  relation  to  the  corresponding  month  or  period 
of  the  previous  year. 

3.  A     statement     of     receipts     and     disbursements, — properly 

analyzed. 

It  depends  on  the  promptness  with  which  bills  for  merchandise 
received  or  for  service  rendered  are  0.  K.'d  and  paid,  and  on  the 
punctuality  with  which  accrued  resources  are  collected,  how  far  a 
statement  of  revenue  and  expense  will  differ  from  a  statement  of 
receipts  and  disbursements.  After  explaining  at  a  National  Con- 
ference of  College  and  University  Trustees  the  need  of  monthly 
statements  of  revenue  and  expense,  Mr.  Ernest  Reckitt,  Certified 
Public  Accountant,  Chicago,  111.,  remarked :  "Please  note  that  I  do 
not  use  the  term  receipts  and  disbursements.  Many  colleges  have 
no  other  book  of  original  entry  than  their  cash  book,  and  under 
this  system  no  intelligent  comparison  can  be  made.  Every  lia- 
bility, either  for  goods  purchased  or  for  services  received,  should 
be  entered  in  the  month  it  was  incurred,  and  the  same  argument 
holds  as  to  your  revenue." 

Not  only  must  the  bookkeeper  furnish  such  data,  but  they  must 
be  intelligently  used.  Each  month  the  expenses,  as  analyzed  by  the 
system  of  accounts  kept,  should  be  scrutinized  by  the  president 
and  the  business  manager.  Copies  should  be  sent  also  to  the 
regents,  and  to  the  council  for  each  faculty  (where  the  councils 
proposed  in  the  preceding  chapter  are  instituted,  otherwise  to 
the  dean  of  each  faculty),  and  the  chairman  of  each  department 
should  receive  every  month  an  itemized  statement  for  his  depart- 
ment. If  the  pecuniary  affairs  of  the  institution  are  to  be  under- 
stood and  held  in  hand,  there  must  be  continual  comparison  with 


142  THE  BUDGET 

the  corresponding  data  for  previous  years,  especially  for  the  last 
year.  If  the  system  of  bookkeeping  is  what  it  should  be,  all  needed 
information  will  be  given  quickly  and  with  ease.  No  competent 
managers  of  any  large  business  would  dream  of  trying  to  get  along 
without  this.  Scrupulous  promptness  should  be  exacted  of  every- 
one authorized  to  incur  expense,  to  0.  K.  and  deliver  to  the  book- 
keepers every  bill  instantly  upon  receipt  of  the  goods  or  the  com- 
pletion of  the  service  for  which  the  bill  was  rendered.  If  all  of 
these  reasonable  precautions  are  not  taken,  disorder  and  deficits  are 
to  be  expected. 

The  classified  statement  of  revenue  and  expense  for  each  fiscal 
year  is  the  only  safe  basis  upon  which  to  frame  the  budget  for  the 
following  year.  Some  remarks  upon  the  proper  nature  of  that  im- 
portant document  are  in  place  here. 

The  Budget 

The  budget  for  an  ensuing  year  seems  to  be  adopted  by  the 
governing  boards  of  many  state  universities  as  a  rigid  appropriation 
of  its  items.,  just  as  appropriation  bills  are  enacted  by  legisla- 
tuies;  and  the  bookkeepers  enter  the  respective  appropriations  as 
credits  and  enter  charges  against  them,  just  as  the  state  comp- 
troller treats  the  appropriations  for  each  year  made  by  the  legis- 
lature. There  is  no  help  for  this  procedure  in  the  case  of  the  leg- 
islature— which  meets,  attempts  to  foresee  all  future  necessities, 
makes  rigid  appropriations,  and  adjourns  sine  die.  But  why 
need  the  board  of  regents  of  a  university  or  college  undertake  to 
prophesy  so  rigidly  a  year  in  advance,  the  expenditure  for  every 
department  ?  The  practice  in  this  matter,  especially  by  state  insti- 
tutions, would  be  different  from  what  it  is,  if  business  methods 
were  as  much  thought  of  as  they  are  talked  about.  Of  course, 
even  the  procedure  of  the  legislature  is  tempered  by  a  limited 
authority  in  governors  to  authorize  deficiencies;  and  boards  of 
regents  in  emergencies  revise  their  "appropriations."  But  I  be- 


THE   BUDGET  143 

lieve  a  changed  conception  of  and  attitude  toward  the  budget 
adopted  for  an  ensuing  year  would  conduce  to  better  business 
management. 

The  budget  is  an  estimate.  Why  not  treat  it  as  such  ?  Genuine 
business  methods  would  simply  require  that  the  person  authorized 
to  make  the  expenditures  for  each  department  of  faculty  and  busi- 
ness affairs  treated  in  the  budget  should  not  exceed  the  amount 
adopted  as  the  estimate  for  that  department  unless  an  excess  be 
approved  by  the  president,  and  that  the  president  should  be  bound 
by  the  spirit  of  the  original  estimate.  If  desirable,  the  joint  approval 
of  some  member  of  a  finance  committee  of  the  board  could  be  re- 
quired; but  there  should  be  no  need  of  that.  The  right  way  is 
to  give  the  president  ample  authority  and  hold  him  responsible 
for  a  wise  use  of  discretionary  powers.  It  is  impossible  to  foresee 
all  necessities,  and  the  proper  cost  of  some  undertakings  cannot 
be  fixed  in  advance.  The  important  point  is  the  careful  considera- 
tion of  every  monthly  statement  of  revenues  and  expenses  by  all 
who  are  responsible  for  them.  It  is  they  who  need  to  compare  with 
the  budget  the  statements  furnished  by  the  bookkeeper.  The  book- 
keeper is  the  last  person  in  the  university  who  needs  to  have  any 
knowledge  of  the  budget.  The  estimates  of  the  budget  have, 
indeed,  no  logical  place  in  the  accounts. 

There  are  various  injurious  consequences  of  regarding  budgets 
as  rigid  appropriation  bills.  Each  department  is  led  to  make  its 
demand  as  high  as  possible  to  guard  against  unforseen  needs.  In 
order  to  prevent  the  lapsing  of  any  part  of  an  "appropriation", 
things  are  sometimes  purchased  for  a  purpose  which  is  afterwards 
abandoned.  If  an  estimate  proves  to  be  insufficient,  some  work 
of  teachers  and  students  may  be  crippled  for  a  year,  which  could 
have  been  made  effective  by  a  small  addition  to  the  amount  set 
down  in  the  budget.  The  waste  measured  by  money  is  not  the 
greatest  damage.  The  reasons  sometimes  given  for  waiting  until 
next  year  to  correct  an  estimate  of  the  budget,  indicate  a  subtle 


144  BUSINESS    MANAGEB 

but  deeper  injury.  Presidents  have  explained  that  though  the 
means  were  available  and  the  need  clear,  yet  the  "appropriation" 
could  not  be  modified  for  one  department  without  causing  jealousy 
in  all  other  departments.  If  that  were  true,  the  moral  atmosphere 
of  the  institution  would  be  corrupting  to  the  youth  who  enter  it, 
and  it  ought  to  be  renovated  or  abolished.  But  that  could  not  be 
true,  if  the  institution  were  riehtly  organized,  and  governed  and 
administered  sensibly.  It  would  be  impossible  to  conceive  anything 
more  unbusinesslike  than  the  attitude  last  alluded  to,  and  it  is 
idle  to  talk  about  business  management  until  such  ideas  are  re- 
nounced. 

Business  Manager 

The  proper  general  ideas  and  attitudes  toward  pecuniary  and 
property  affairs  of  the  institution  are  not  alone  sufficient  for  the 
right  management  of  such  affairs.  Expert  care  must  be  taken  of 
them  through  a  well  organized  department.  The  danger  here  is 
that  business  departments  may  be  established  and  conducted  as 
ends  in  themselves — not  rightly  subordinated  to  and  in  harmony 
with  the  educational  work.  A  business  manager  should  have  his 
needed  authority,  but  it  would  be  better  to  let  money  be  wasted  than 
to  set  him  up  as  coordinate  with  the  president.  The  details  of 
all  business  affairs  should  be  within  the  province  of  the  business 
manager,  but  he  should  not  have  unchecked  authority  to  impose 
arrangements  for  his  convenience  or  to  suit  his  ideas  of  system  and 
uniformity.  The  business  management  should  conform  with  and 
subserve  the  real  work  for  which  alone  all  parts  of  the  institution 
exist.  For  instance,  all  material  for  a  laboratory  should  not  be 
procured  through  the  business  manager's  store  or  purchasing  office, 
if  it  be  advantageous  to  the  laboratory  for  its  director  to  buy  some 
things.  Such  matters  should  be  adjusted  by  due  consultation  with 
each  department,  the  business  manager  yielding  his  judgment 
to  that  of  the  chairman  of  the  department,  unless  some  principle, 
or  considerable  amount  of  money,  seemed  to  him  to  be  involved — 


BUSINESS    MANAGER  145 

in  which  case  the  question  should  be  referred  to  the  president. 
There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  handling  these  petty  affairs  if 
right  attitudes  are  assumed. 

The  business  manager  of  a  university  could  not  demonstrate 
incapacity  more  clearly  than  by  desiring  a  stupid  uniformity  for 
disparate  conditions.  Because  his  office  can  advantageously  pur- 
chase and  store  coal,  brooms,  and  blackboard  crayons,  is  no  reason 
for  wishing  to  buy  the  frogs  for  a  physiology  laboratory,  or  a  crystal 
or  piece  of  special  wire  for  a  physics  laboratory.  Men  who  cannot 
make  such  distinctions,  and  want  a  "purchasing  agent"  to  buy 
everything,  after  a  wasteful  process  of  requisition  and  countersign- 
ing,* understand  neither  a  university  nor  business.  Such  things 
should  be  sensibly  arranged  by  the  business  manager.  There  need 
be  no  purchasing  agent;  but  some  office  in  the  business  manager's 
department  ought  to  buy  what  it  can  buy  and  store  what  it  can 
store  with  clear  advantage  to  the  work  of  the  institution,  leav- 
ing many  things  with  the  departments  of  instruction  and  research. 
The  librarian,  for  instance,  should  buy  the  books  lor  the  library. 
Of  course,  a  prompt  presentation  of  all  bills  at  the  accounting  office 
should  be  required  of  everyone  authorized  to  incur  any  expense. 
There  are  purchasing  agents  who  save  less  in  buying  advantageously 
coal,  lawn  mowers,  stenographers'  note  books,  lead  pencils,  etc.,  than 
they  waste  in  making  thousands  of  petty  purchases  under  regula- 
tions that  consume  ten  dollars'  worth  of  high  priced  time  for  every 
dollar  spent  on  such  special  items — taking  no  account  of  the  strain 
upon  the  patience  of  the  instructors  or  of  the  losses  suffered  by 
defenseless  students. 

The  reasonable  adjustments  to  differing  conditions,  thus  sug- 
gested, do  not  impair  a  proper  centralization  of  business  manage- 


*E.  g.,  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  every  requisition  for  the  purchase 
of  supplies  must,  it  is  said,  be  approved  by  the  executive  committee  of  the 
board  of  regents,  the  president,  the  secretary,  the  dean,  and  the  head  of 
the  department. 


146  BUSINESS    MANAGER 

ment ;  on  the  contrary  they  would  safeguard  it  against  its  besetting 
danger.  There  should  be  a  responsible  manager  with  due  authority 
over  all  business  offices ;  but  it  behooves  him  to  avoid  all  formalities 
and  rigidity  that  interfere  with  usefulness.  Mr.  Christensen,  in  the 

report  mentioned  above,  explained  and  advised,  in  part,  as  follows: 
i 

"College  and  imiversity  authorities  are  apparently  lacking  in  appre- 
ciation of  the  necessity  for  the  proper  organization  of  the  business  offices. 
This  accounts  for  a  great  deal  of  the  looseness  in  the  business  adminis- 
tration which  has  been  found  in  several  institutions.  .  .  .  With  the 
growth  of  a  university  and  with  the  constant  increase  of  business  matters, 
the  business  offices  have  sometimes  been  organized  into  several  distinct 
departments,  but  without  a  head  over  all  of  the  departments.  One  uni- 
versity recently  put  in  a  purchasing  department,  but  made  the  fatal  error 
of  not  making  that  department  a  part  of  the  business  organization  of  the 
university.  .  .  .  This  university  has  now  made  the  university  treas- 
urer the  business  manager,  and  the  president  acts  through  him.  All  busi- 
ness offices  are  under  control  of  the  business  manager. 

"An  objectionable  manner  of  conducting  business  in  several  universities 
has  been  shown  in  the  tendency  to  scatter  through  a  number  of  offices 
what  should  be  done  in  one  office  and  under  one  authority.  .  .  .  This 
scattering  has  frequently  been  caused  by  powerful  deans  or  heads  of  de- 
partments assuming  powers  and  duties  which  properly  belong  to  the  execu- 
tive offices  of  the  university.  In  some  institutions  the  powers  and  duties 
of  a  dean  are  not  clearly  defined,  and  this  lack  of  definite  authority  has 
caused  confusion  in  the  business  offices.  Without  doubt  much  of  the  detail 
work  which  is  now  being  done  in  the  offices  of  deans  and  heads  of  depart- 
ments, in  many  institutions,  could  be  better  done  in  central  offices  under 
central  authority.  .  .  . 

"The  business  manager  should  be  of  sufficient  caliber  to  assume  entire 
control  of  all  business  matters,  and  all  officers  who  deal  with  business 
matters  should  report  to  him.  The  business  manager  would  also  be  the 
logical  secretary  of  the  Board  of  .Regents,  or  Trustees.  It  is  highly  im- 
portant that  the  business  manager  be  present  at  all  meetings  of  the  Board 
so  that  he  may  see  that  all  matters  relating  to  the  business  side  of  the 
university  are  properly  looked  after.  It  is  seldom  satisfactory  to  delegate 
such  matters  to  persons  who  do  not  have  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  the 
things  to  be  presented." 


BUSINESS   MANAGER  147 

The  important  points  are  that  the  business  manager,  whether 
he  be  the  secretary  of  the  board  or  not,  be  present  when  business 
affairs  are  considered,  and  that  he  be  of  "sufficient  caliber."  Mr. 
Christensen  gave  an  "outline  of  business  organization,"  based  on 
"observations  of  some  of  the  best  organization  discovered  on  my 
recent  trip,"  differing  little  from  the  following: 

BUSINESS  MANAGES 

The  Business  Manager  is  the  head  of  business  affairs.  The  Board 
of  Regents  and  the  President  act  through  him  in  the  details  of  business 
matters. 

1.  Business  Office 

a.  Accounting  Department: 

Chief  clerk,  cashier,  voucher  clerk,  bookkeeper,  inventory 
clerk,  etc.  It  is  assumed  that  all  payments  are  made  by 
voucher-checks  of  good  form  with  stub  record.  There  should 
be  strict  checking  with  the  registrar's  office  of  all  bills  issued 
for  matriculation  fees,  etc.,  properly  classified.  The  cashier 
should  give  receipt  for  every  cent  taken  by  him,  and  keep 
carbon  duplicate  of  the  receipt.  This  will  facilitate  checking 
when  the  office  is  audited. 

b.  Purchasing  and  Storeroom  Department: 

Order  clerk,  stenographer,  receiving  clerk,  storekeeper,  etc. 

2.  Superintendent  of  Buildings  and  Grounds 

In   charge  of  physical  plant,  and  superintendent  of  construction. 
Clerk,  draftsman,  inspector,  etc. 

a.  Heat,  Power,  Light,  Water: 

Superintendent,  engineers,  laborers. 

b.  Repair  Shops: 

Carpenters,  painters,  plumbers,  electricians,  repair  gangs,  etc. 

c.  Janitors: 

Head  janitor,  assistants,  cleaners,  caretakers. 

d.  Police  and  Fire  Protection: 

Watchmen. 

e.  Grounds,  Roads,  and  Walks: 

Head  gardener,  laborers. 


148  GROUNDS   AND   BUILDINGS 

3.     Consulting  Engineers  and  Architects 

For    all    original    planning,    and    for    considerable    alterations    of 
buildings  or  grounds. 

Grounds  and  Buildings. 

State  universities  have  suffered  much  from  a  lack  of  provident 
attention  to  future  need  for  ground,  and  to  the  designing,  location, 
and  quality  of  buildings.  One  of  the  causes  of  this  neglect  has 
probably  been  the  short  term  of  the  regent's  office.  In  Texas,  the 
two-years'  term  of  the  past  has  just  been  changed  by  constitutional 
amendment  to  six  years.*  It  was  perfectly  evident  many  years 
ago  that  the  meager  campus  of  the  University  of  Texas  could  not 
contain  the  institution  much  longer.  Strikingly  suitable  ground 
lay  to  the  east,  unoccupied  and  purchasable  at  low  prices.  When 
the  site  of  the  University  was  originally  fixed,  the  cost  to  the  State 
of  providing  a  campus  of  proper  size  would  have  been  comparatively 
nothing.  The  legislature  at  that  time  acted  as  it  did  from  sheer 
lack  of  competent  advice.  Had  they  understood  that  forty  acres 
would  certainly  prove  to  be  insufficient,  they  would  have  set  aside 
a  suitable  area.  The  time  has  now  come  when  the  ground  to  the 
east  must  be  bought  at  high  prices,  wasting  also  many  houses  that 
have  been  built  upon  it;  or  the  University  must  be  scattered  in 
non-contigious  localities;  or  the  entire  institution  must  be  moved 
to  a  new  suburban  site,  sacrificing  its  own  present  buildings,  and, 
far  worse,  many  other  establishments,  public  and  private,  that 
have  been  founded  in  reliance  upon  the  permanence  of  the  Univer- 
sity's location. 

Speaking  of  the  grouping  of  buildings,  the  laying-out  and  deco- 
ration of  a  university's  unoccupied  grounds,  and  the  provision  of  an 
amount  of  land  sufficient  for  future  needs,  President  Eliot  gives 
wise  and  needed  counsel: 

*See  page  23. 


GROUNDS   AND  BUILDINGS  149 

"The  beauty  of  university  buildings,  of  their  site,  and  of  the  grounds 
about  them,  makes  an  important  part  of  its  teaching.  On  this  account 
urban  universities  whose  buildings  are  situated  in  compactly  built  streets 
can  never  exert  on  their  students  all  the  beneficial  influences  which  sub- 
urban or  rural  universities  can  exert.  Every  large  university  should  own 
and  maintain  in  good  order  decorated  open  spaces  about  its  buildings, 
interior  quadrangles  between  groups  of  buildings,  gardens,  and  groves. 
Shabbiness  and  untidiness  should  never  be  permitted  on  university  grounds. 
If  the  site  provides  wide  prospects  or  beautiful  vistas,  these  landscape 
beauties  should  be  carefully  utilized,  and  preserved  from  impairment  by 
the  growing  up  of  trees,  or  the  planting  of  buildings  across  the  lines  of 
view.  In  order  to  discharge  well  this  function  of  university  trustees,  the 
board  should  obtain  the  best  professional  advice  which  the  country  affords, 
and  is  never  justified  in  employing  for  local  or  political  reasons,  or  in 
deference  to  the  wishes  of  benefactors,  any  advisers  about  the  designs  of 
buildings,  their  sites,  and  the  lay-out  of  grounds,  who  are  not  of  the  first 
class.  In  accepting  the  gift  of  a  building,  prudent  trustees  will  always 
make  the  condition  that  the  design  and  site  of  the  building  shall  be 
acceptable  to  the  expert  advisers  of  the  board.  Since  architecture  and 
landscape  architecture  have  now  become  well  recognized  professions  for 
highly  trained  men  in  the  United  States,  it  has  become  inexcusable  in 
university  trustees  to  erect  buildings  without  the  most  careful  possible 
consideration  of  their  designs  and  of  the  relation  of  each  building  to  its 
neighbors,  or  to  plant  buildings  about  their  grounds  without  reference  to 
the  future  buildings  which  the  university  is  sure  to  need.  .  .  . 

"They  have  too  much  neglected  the  study  of  order  and  beauty  in  the 
lay-out  of  university  grounds,  and  have  incurred  great  losses  through  the 
erection  of  buildings  which  were  not  fireproof.  They  needed  spacious 
shelters  so  urgently,  that  they  ran  the  risk  of  building  large  combustible 
structures  instead  of  smaller  fireproof  ones.  These  conditions  of  poverty 
are  now  passing  away,  and  it  is  emphatically  the  duty  of  university 
trustees  to  erect  buildings,  lay  out  their  open  grounds,  and  plant  them 
with  reference  to  the  sure  centuries  of  affectionate  use.  University  grounds 
and  buildings  can  now  be  arranged  to  last,  which  seems  to  be  more  than 
can  be  said  for  any  other  buildings  in  the  United  States,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  some  government  buildings  and  some  country  churches.  It 
may  not  be  very  important  to  study  carefully  the  design  of  a  house,  fac- 
tory, shop,  office  building,  or  church,  which  is  likely  to  be  burnt,  torn  down, 
or  converted  to  new  uses  within  seventy  years;  but  grounds  and  buildings 


150  FINANCIAL   REPORTS 

which  really  have  a  chance  to  prove  permanent  ought  to  be  studied  in  the 
most  careful  manner  possible.  Because  of  the  importance  of  this  function 
of  university  trustees,  it  is  highly  desirable,  whenever  the  conditions 
permit,  that  trustees  should  be  selected  who  feel  a  real  affection  for  the 
university  which  they  are  to  govern,  and  for  its  surroundings.  Strangers 
will,  as  a  rule,  not  make  so  good  trustees  as  children  of  the  house. 

"The  trustees  have  a  somewhat  difficult  duty  in  regard  to  the  acceptance 
of  gifts.  There  are  gifts  which  it  is  highly  inexpedient  to  accept, — as,  for 
instance,  a  gift  for  a  specified  object  which  is  not  of  a  surely  durable 
nature,  and  yet  comes  without  discretion  for  the  trustees  as  to  other 
applications  of  the  gift  when  its  specified  use  shall  be  no  longer  possible, 
or  a  gift  which  would  impair  religious  toleration  or  academic  freedom,  or 
a  gift  which  cannot  be  utilized  without  bringing  new  charges  on  the 
university  itself.  The  trustees  must  endeavor  to  divert  benefactors  away 
from  any  such  gifts  as  these  and  towards  safe  objects,  or  must  procure 
modification  of  the  terms  of  proposed  gifts,  so  that  these  dangers  may  be 
avoided.  .  .  . 

"A  university  should  not  be  carried  on,  like  a  business  corporation,  with 
any  policy  of  laying  up  undivided  profits,  or  of  setting  aside  unused 
income  for  emergencies  or  future  needs.  On  the  contrary,  it  should 
endeavor  to  expend  all  its  available  income.  While  it  should  never  live 
beyond  its  means,  it  has  no  call  to  accumulate  for  the  benefit  of  future 
generations.  For  enlargements,  new  equipments,  and  the  occupation  of 
new  fields  of  usefulness,  it  should  rely  on  new  endowments  or  new  annual 
receipts;  or,  if  it  be  a  State  university,  on  new  appropriations.  In  en- 
deavoring to  use  all  its  proper  income,  it  may  sometimes  incur  a  deficit; 
but  it  should  forthwith  take  measures  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  such  a 
deficit,  since  habitual  deficits,  however  incurred,  must  be  charged  either 
to  past  endowments  which  ought  to  be  held  unimpaired,  or  to  future 
resources  which  are  only  hoped  for.  Each  of  these  methods  is  objection- 
able in  itself,  and  each  sets  a  bad  example  to  educational,  charitable,  and 
religious  institutions." 

Financial  Reports  and  Audits 

Tax-supported  institutions  are  required  by  law  to  print  annually 
a  detailed  statement  of  receipts  and  disbursements.  These  state- 
ments in  many  cases  are  merely  a,  list  of  vouchers,  serving  few 
of  the  proper  purposes  of  a  financial  report.  Of  endowed  institu- 


FINANCIAL   REPORTS  151 

tions  President  Pritchett  says:  "The  great  mass  of  institutions 
of  higher  learning  in  the  United  States  bearing  the  name  college 
or  university  make  no  public  accounting  of  the  disposition  of  the 
moneys  which  they  receive."  Educational  sincerity  and  power  are 
connected  in  many  ways  with  a  clear  and  open  acknowledgment 
of  financial  responsibilities  and  limitations.  From  every  point  of 
view  it  is  good  policy  to  publish  full  and  clear  reports,  in  which 
revenues  and  expenses  are  grouped  under  truly  significant  head- 
ings. Mr.  William  A.  Dyche,  Business  Manager  of  Northwestern 
University,  pointed  out  some  years  ago  a  very  practical  advantage 
secured  to  Harvard  University  by  the  character  of  its  financial 
reports.  The  praise  is  merited  by  the  feature  expressly  referred 

*          .  -.,-»:«  rfS*,V,.f..  tl  .••? 

to,  if  not  for  everything  one  should  "wish  to  know" : 

"President  Eliot  of  Harvard  was,  I  am  told,  the  first  educator  who  gave 
attention  to  the  business  office  of  his  university.  Under  his  direction  the 
reports  of  Harvard  University  are  models.  You  can  learn  anything  you 
wish  to  know  about  the  finances  of  Harvard  by  reading  the  annual  report 
of  its  treasurer.  Such  a  report,  showing  a  long  list  of  investments  of 
endowment  funds,  with  the  interest  earning  of  this  year  compared  with 
that  of  the  preceding  year,  inspires  confidence.  The  prospective  donor  who 
reads  one  of  Harvard's  reports  will  never  be  afraid  to  trust  it  with  his 
money." 

Are  the  accounts  of  your  endowment  funds  so  kept  that  the  rev- 
enue from  each  is  shown?  Is  the  uninvested  portion  of  each  fund 
shown  and  reported  so  that  it  may  be  made  interest  bearing  with- 
out delay?  Is  the  rate  of  interest  of  each  investment  shown,  so 
that  it  may  be  a  guide  for  future  investments  ?  If  you  hold  bonds 
bought  above  par,  are  you  writing  off  each  year  the  part  of  the 
premium  corresponding  to  the  number  of  years  until  their  matur- 
ity? If  you  have  an  eye  to  "prospective  donors,''  not  to  mention 
other  reasons,  these  questions  should  have  affirmative  answers. 

There  is  no  need  for  detailed  uniformity  in  the  bookkeeping  and 
published  reports  of  different  institutions;  but  it  would  be  very 
advantageous  for  comparisons  much  needed  by  every  institution,  if 


152  FINANCIAL   REPORTS 

all  of  them  would  make  the  report  forms  recommended  by  The 
Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching*  a  genera] 
basis  for  their  reports  and  the  corresponding  accounts  in  their 
bookkeeping.  Some  reformers  will  go  to  injurious  extremes,  aping 
industrial  costs  accounting,  but  there  are  certain  things  in  which 
all  would  naturally  agree.  The  comparisons  with  other  institu- 
tions that  could  be  thus  made  available  would  be  very  serviceable. 
Speaking  of  such  classifications  of  expenses,  President  Pritchett 
says: 

"What  are  the  significant  items  of  expense  of  a  college?  What  group- 
ing of  the  numerous  items  of  expenditure  will  give  some  fair  estimate  of 
the  character  of  the  college's  method  of  expending  its  money? 

"It  is  clear  that  the  answer  to  this  inquiry  is  fundamental,  and  that  it 
cannot  be  given  wholly  from  the  standpoint  of  an  accountant.  There  is 
no  gain  to  be  had  by  presenting  a  series  of  statistics  unless  they  warrant 
some  conclusion  concerning  the  operations  which  the  expenditures  rep- 
resent. 

"It  seems  clear,  however,  that  a  group  of  men  composed  in  part  of 
college  officers  and  teachers,  in  part  of  the  financial  trustees  responsible 
for  administration,  could  agree  upon  such  items  as  are  significant.  For 
example,  a  trustee  of  the  college,  as  well  as  a  student  of  education,  would 
alike  desire  to  know  what  part  of  the  income  of  the  college  is  spent  in 
the  payment  of  teachers'  salaries,  and  what  salaries  the  various  grades 
of  teachers  receive. 

"Again,  each  of  these  would  desire  to  know  what  the  expense  of  a  given 
department  is  and  how  much  of  this  expense  went  into  the  employment 
of  teachers,  how  much  into  laboratory  or  library  maintenance." 

President  Pritchett  mentioned  "another  question"  which  he  be- 
lieved could  and  should  be  answered  by  the  accounts  kept,  to-wit, 
"the  relative  cost  of  that  part  of  the  university's  work  which  goes 
to  teaching  and  that  part  of  it  which  goes  to  research."  I  do  not 
believe  that  question  could  be  truly  answered  by  accounts. 


•"Standard  Forms  for  Financial  Reports  of  Colleges,  Universities,  and 
Technical  Schools" — Bulletin  Number  Three. 


FINANCIAL   REPORTS  153 

It  is  impossible  to  draw  lines  between  teaching  and  research,  and 
it  seems  to  me  that  it  would  not  be  desirable  to  do  so  if  it  were 
possible.  Even  those  researches  undertaken  primarily  by  the 
teacher  on  his  own  account  have  much  to  do  with  his  teaching,  and 
almost  always  draw  into  them  either  graduate  or  undergraduate 
students.  It  is  sufficient  if  the  salaries,  and  the  expenditure  for 
equipment,*  and  the  expense  for  supplies,  etc.,  are  distinctly  given 
for  each  department.  In  a  different  connection,  and  a  year  later, 
President  Pritchett  himself  points  out  that,  "in  the  field  of  re- 
search, no  consistent  correlation  between  work  and  expense  is  feasi- 
ble" : 

"There  is  apparently  a  realm  to  which  the  industrial  point  of  view  is 
obviously  inapplicable.  The  manufacturer  must  know  in  terms  of  dollars 
and  cents  the  actual  cost  of  every  step  he  takes  and  of  every  product  he 
turns  out;  and  even  when  he  carries  on  some  particular  form  of  activity 
at  a  loss,  it  is  on  the  basis  of  a  calculation  that  he  will  create  ultimately 
a  market  sufficiently  large  to  convert  the  loss  into  final  gain.  In  the 
upper  regions  of  academic  activity,  namely,  in  the  field  of  research,  no 
such  close  or  consistent  correlation  between  work  and  expense  is  feasible. 
.  .  .  The  ultimate  outcome  of  an  expensive  research  may  be  slight,  just 
as  the  ultimate  outcome  of  an  inexpensive  research  may  be  extremely 
precious  or  profitable.  .  .  .  There  is,  then,  one  area  within  which  the 
industrial  organizer  may  have  much  to  tell  our  college  administrator. 
There  is  at  the  far  end  another  within  which  he  may  achieve  nothing." 

The  "realm  to  which  the  industrial  point  of  view  is  inapplicable" 
is,  indeed,  apparent;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  not  confined  to 
any  area  at  one  far  end.  A  realm  that  cannot  be  rightly  subjected 
to  the  industrial  point  of  view  extends  into  every  sphere  of  the 
interests  of  an  educational  institution.  The  truer  metaphor  would 
compare  the  reality  with  overlapping  jurisdictions:  nowhere  is 
the  business  management  without  some  jurisdiction,  everywhere 
the  supreme  jurisdiction  inheres  in  the  spiritual  aim. 

*The  usual  confusion  of  equipment  and  supplies  in  one  account  is  unskill- 
ful and  very  unsatisfactory. 


154  AUDITS 

It  is  not  enough  to  publish  clear  financial  reports.  The  reports 
should  be  certified  by  a  public  accountant  after  thorough  examina- 
tion of  the  books  and  checking  of  all  vouchers.  For  such  an  audit 
only  a  competent  and  reliable  and  independent  auditor  should  be 
engaged.  Universities  ought  to  set  the  example  of  calling  in  for 
this  periodical  service  preferably  men  holding  the  degree  of  Certi- 
fied Public  Accountant.  The  Chartered  Accountant  has  been  a 
recognized  and  indispensable  profession  in  Europe  for  centuries, 
but  it  was  not  until  1896  that  the  State  of  New  York  enacted  the 
firet  law  in  the  United  States  creating  the  title  of  Certified  Public 
Accountant  and  authorizing  its  universities  to  grant  the  degree  of 
C.  P.  A.  Such  laws  do  not  forbid  those  who  are  not  certified 
public  accountants  to  practice  as  accountants,  but  they  do,  as  far  as 
possible,  enable  the  public  to  choose  men  of  reliable  character  and 
sufficient  knowedge,  if  they  wish  to  do  so,  when  financial  records 
and  statements  need  to  be  audited  and  certified.  California,  Illi- 
nois, Maryland,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Washington  and  other 
States  have  enacted  similar  laws.  "In  May,  1903,"  says  Mr.  Eeck- 
itt,  "the  Illinois  legislature  passed  the  C.  P.  A.  law  for  this  State, 
and  conferred  upon  the  University  of  Illinois  the  privilege  of 
granting  the  degree  of  C.  P.  A.  to  those  who  could  qualify.  The 
University  has  taken  up  this  fresh  duty  with  its  usual  energy/"' 

Mistaken  Analogies 

The  volume  entitled  "Academic  and  Industrial  Efficiency/'  pre- 
pared by  Mr.  Morris  Llewellyn  Cooke,  member  of  the  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  issued*  by  the  Carnegie  Founda- 
tion, mingles  with  some  good  suggestions,  advice,  that,  if  followed, 
would  lead  a  university  into  deleterious  practices.  It  is  very  evi- 
dent, as  President  Pritchett  explains  in  a  preface,  that  Mr.  Cooke's 
"study  is  offered  from  the  viewpoint  of  one  outside  college  work." 

He    also    explains    that    the    "study    is    commended,    without 


'Bulletin  Number  Five. 


MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES  155 

discussion  as  to  its  merits,  to  the  thoughtful  examination 
of  college  officers,  trustees,  and  teachers,  as  a  friendly  at- 
tempt to  contribute  to  the  solution  of  college  problems  from  the 
standpoint  of  one  who  has  to  do  with  industrial  efficiency,  and  with- 
out any  preconceived  opinion  as  to  how  far  the  analogy  which  its 
title  suggests  may  be  pushed.  The  college  is  partly  a  business  and 
partly  something  very  different  from  a  business."  Any  criticism 
of  existing  mismanagement  may  lead  to  good,  by  directing  atten- 
tion to  the  need  of  some  reform;  but  advice  should  be  critically 
considered.  There  are  practical  dangers  in  this  case  that  the 
well-intended  advice  of  an  industrial-efficiency  expert  may  be  fol- 
lowed, in  thoughtless  haste  to  be  'doing  things/  to  the  undoing  'of  a 
university. 

Lack  of  space  forbids  comprehensive  criticism  of  Mr.  Cooke's 
observations  from  his  "standpoint  of  industrial  efficiency."  S-everal 
points  are  mentioned  as  warning  examples.  He  insists  that  all 
overhead  expense  should  be  apportioned  among  the  respective  de- 
partments of  instruction,  the  charge  against  each  being  proportional 
to  the  amount  of  salaries  paid  in  it;  that  the  cost  of  heating  be 
charged  to  the  departments  in  proportion  to  the  area  of  floor  space, 
respectively  occupied  by  them;  that  water,  gas,  and  electricity  be 
metered  for  each  building  and  charged  to  the  departments  in 
proportion  to  their  use  of  the  building;  that  each  department  be 

Kf  F(*, /»  H  i"J"|*»"'  -vr/r    •    ;  •!•;•>•  f|v-. 

charged  with  four  per  centum  of  the  value  of  land  and  buildings 
(or  parts  thereof)  and  fixtures  and  equipment  used  by  it,  as  inter- 
est on  investment;  and  that  four  per  centum  of  the  value  of  lands 
and  buildings  held  for  the  common  good,  and  all  cost  of  maintain- 
ing libraries,  gymnasiums,  etc.,  and  deficits  caused  by  commons, 
dormitories,  etc.,  be  prorated  and  charged  against  the  teaching 
departments  as  overhead  expenses  are  charged.  The  prime  purpose 
of  ascertaining  from  such  accounts  the  "cost"  of  each  department 
seems  to  be  to  learn  the  excess  of  receipts  over  the  cost.  The 
thoughtful  reader  here  pulls  himself  together.  Eeceipts  ?  Ah, 


156  MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES 

friends,  a  little  difficulty  like  that  is  nothing  to  an  industrial  organ- 
izer of  a  university.  Mr.  Cooke  animadverts :  "Anyone  investing 
money  in  a  business  has  an  opportunity  of  judging  the  management 
by  the  profits  earned.  In  the  same  way,  a  man  who  is  at  the  head 
of  a  business  can  devote  much  or  little  time  to  the  supervision  of 
any  one  department  with  the  thought  that  at  a  given  date  the  books 
will  be  closed  and  the  management  of  that  department  will  be 
fairly  accurately  reflected  in  the  excess  of  receipts  over  costs."  He 
'looks  in  vain"  in  the  accounts  and  records  of  colleges  and  univer- 
sities for  any  receipts  to  balance  against  the  costs.  Horrors !  We 
must  find  "some  gauge  or  measure."  ''Before  any  progress  is  pos- 
sible some  selection  must  be  made."  Let  us  take,  he  says,  "as  per- 
haps the  most  immediately  available  unit  the  student-hour."  Now. 
we  may  keep  books  that  are  books.  N"ow  the  business  manager  can 
tell  what  his  receipts  are.  For  be  it  understood,  Mr.  Cooke  deems 
this  matter  an  affair  of  the  "bursar,  comptroller,  or  business  mana- 
ger— the  latter  title  seems  to  describe  what  I  believe  should  be  his 
general  functions  better  than  any  other."  And  he  opines:  "If 
the  student-hour  were  adopted  and  an  effort  made  to  keep  track,  not 
only  of  the  details  of  cost  per  student-hour  in  each  of  the  depart- 
ments, but  of  the  receipts  as  well,  this  officer  would  have  a  large 
field  of  usefulness  open  to  him."  Simply  divide  the  net  cost,  thus 
obtained,  by  the  number  of  student-hours,  and  we  shall  be  able  to 
judge  what  we  are  getting  for  our  money.  The  business  manager  i? 
put  in  a  position  to  give  the  needed  advice  for  adjusting  the  number 
of  courses  offered,  the  number  of  instructors,  and  the  salaries_  in 
every  department.  Invaluable  student-hour! 

Mr.  Cooke  protests  at  several  points,  en  passant,  that  he  knows 
that  "the  cost  per  student-hour  has  absolutely  no  value  in  distin- 
guishing educational  values,"  nevertheless  it  seems  to  him  that  the 
student-hour  (or  some  other  yet  to  be  invented  unit)  must  be  used 
as  a  gauge  or  measure  of  efficiency,  in  the  manner  and  for  the  pur- 


MISTAKEN    ANALOGIES  157 

poses  described,  "before  any  progress  is  possible."  In  my  judg- 
ment, on  the  contrary,  that  way  disaster  lies. 

I  submit  that  it  is  sufficient  for  good  business  management  and 
proper  financial  reporting,  to  classify  the  expenses  of  general  man- 
agement in  suitable  accounts;  and  to  keep  accounts  with  each  de- 
partment showing  the  expenditure  for  its  maintainance  under  suit- 
able headings,  such  as  salaries,  equipment,  supplies,  expense — 
analyzing  the  last  as  desirable,  for  instance,  the  printing  and  dis- 
tribution of  bulletins  in  some  departments  should  be  a  distinct  item 
of  expense.  The  prorating  of  overhead  expenses,  interest  on  the 
cost  of  buildings,  etc.,  would  serve  no  good  purpose,  and  the  re- 
sults would  probably  be  misused. 

The  chief  use  Mr.  Cooke  would  make  of  student-hours  is  the  most 
dangerous  of  his  proposals.  It  is  equally  mistaken  to  use  the 
student-hour  to  measure  the  labor  and  diligence  of  teachers;  but 
the  false  assumption  that  the  number  of  student-hours  measures 
results  and  that  the  cost  per  student-hour,  therefore,  measures 
"efficiency,"  menaces  more  serious  practical  consequences.  The 
former  error  is  so  palpably  absurd  that  it  could  hardly  be  applied 
except  as  an  adjunct  to  the  latter, — to  add  insult  to  injury.  For 
instance,  if  overseers  and  critics  imagined  that  a  teacher  who  was 
conducting  four  courses,  each  attended  by  ten  students  three  hours 
a  week  (120  student  hours),  was  doing  only  half  as  much  work  as 
another  who  taught  four  courses.,  each  attended  by  twenty  stu- 
dents three  hours  a  week  (240  student-hours), — that  foolish  opin- 
ion could  hardly,  by  itself,  lead  to  more  than  jealous  and  unjust 
thoughts  and  feelings.  But  if  the  same  facts  should  be  made  a 
basis  for  the  belief  that  (at  the  same  salary)  the  first  teacher  was 
costing  the  institution  twice  as  much  as  the  second,  and  that  the 
results  or  the  receipts  for  human  society  were  in  the  same  propor- 
tion,— then  many  injurious  acts  would  follow.  If  a  college  or  uni- 
versity calculated  and  published,  as  an  established  practice,  the 


158  MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES 

cost  per  student-hour  for  each  department,  practical  abuses  would 
inevitably  follow. 

The  fear  of  just  such  misconceptions  (especially  on  the  part  of 
regents  and  legislators),  has  led  the  majority  of  universities  to 
withhold  facts  that  ought  to  be  known.  One  cannot  learn  from 
catalogs  (often  not  by  special  inquiry)  even  the  number  of  stu- 
dents enrolled  in  a  department.  The  danger  feared  by  administra- 
tors is  real,  but  in  my  judgment  the  concealment  usually  practiced 
is  a  mistake.  The  number  of  students  attending  each  course  in 
each  department  ought  to  be  published.  I  do  not  believe  that  jus- 
tifiable departments  or  courses  would  often  be  abolished.  Ill-con- 

BM-    Si.       : 

sidered  attacks  might  be  made,  and  sometimes  ignorance  might  pre- 

BBI-'  .E;     <;      .     I 

vail;  but  in  general,  intelligent  defense  would  win,  and  even  fail- 
ure would  mean  no  moral  defeat,  no  inner  catastrophe.  The  num- 
ber of  students  attending  each  course  is  a  simple  fact  that  should 
be  considered  directly  in  each  case.  Incongruous  numerical  opera- 
tions producing  numbers  miscalled  salary  per  student-hour,  cost 
per  student-hour,  efficiency,  etc.,  will  never  be  emploved  bv  those 
who  understand  what  ought  to  be  considered  in  determining 
whether  a  course  or  a  department  should  be  maintained  or  not. 
If  it  be  decided  on  proper  grounds  that  the  course  should  be 
offered,  then  it  follows  in  the  right  management  of  the  business  of  a 
university,  regardless  of  the  number  of  student-hours,  that  the 
cost  of  the  work  should  be  whatever  is  necessary  to  do  it  well.  In 
some  courses  the  number  of  students  affects  the  cost,  in  others 
(within  limits)  it  does  not  affect  the  cost,  and  for  no  course  is  the 
cost  proportional  to  the  number  01  students.  And  never  is  the 
number  of  students  (or  student-hours)  a  "gauge  or  measure"  of 
the  value  of  the  results. 

If  two  universities  approximate  the  same  size  and  maintain 
approximately  the  same  colleges  and  schools,  the  quotient  ob- 
tained by  dividing  total  expenditure  by  number  of  students  affords 
a  legitimate  basis  for  a  rough  comparison  of  their  standards  of 


MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES  159 

maintenance.*  That  quotient  is  a  fact,  and  has  some  significance; 
but  it  is  thoughtless  to  name  it  "COST  per  student."  It  is  astonish- 
ing that  university  authorities  who  conceal  the  enrollments  in  their 
departments,  lest  the  facts  should  be  misused,  commonly  dessemi- 
nate  the  very  misconception  they  fear,  by  publishing  arguments 
for  increased  support  in  which  they  use  the  misleading  term  "cost 
per  student"  to  name  the  fact — Income  Divided  by  Number  of 
Students.  The  reader  needs  only  to  be  reminded  that  every  univer- 
sity and  everv  asrricultural  college  must  expend  considerable  sums 
on  scientific  research,  experiment  stations,  surveys,  museums,  bulle- 
tins, and  "extension"  services  of  great  variety.  In  some  cases 
thousand  of  persons  not  included  in  the  number  of  students  are 
taught  by  correspondence.  Many  other  services  to  the  State  and  to 
individuals,  besides  teaching  students  during  the  regular  term  of 
enrollment,  might  be  mentioned.  Let  the  number  of  students  in 
each  course  be  published  in  catalogs ;  let  the  cost  of  maintaining 
each  department  be  published  in  financial  reports.  That  is  suffi- 
cient. The  cost  "per  student"  rarely  needs  to  be  considered,  and 
then  only  in  a  true  sense  by  experts  who  know  to  what  extent  the 
cost  of  the  department  in  question  would  be  affected  by  a  given 
increase  or  decrease  in  the  number  of  its  students.  For  general  pub- 
lication, or  for  the  uses  advised  in  the  imposing  monograph  we  are 
discussing,  the  very  idea  is  pernicious.  And  the  figures  as  there 
derived  are  either  erroneous  or  meaningless. 

The  certified  accountant,  Mr.  Eeckitt,  in  his  discussion  of  Busi- 
ness Methods  in  Universities,  also  "from  the  viewpoint  of  one  out- 
side college  work,"  proves  the  possibility  of  understanding  these 
matters  whether  viewed  from  without  or  from  within.  He  mentions 
that  the  total  cost  of  operation  per  capita  may  be  useful  for  some 


*The  average  for  a  number  of  institutions  of  the  same  class  gives  a 
better  basis.  See  "A  Study  of  the  Financial  Basis  of  the  State  Univer- 
sities and  Agricultural  Colleges  in  Fourteen  States,"  by  Arthur  Lefevre, 
issued  by  the  Organization  for  the  Enlargement  by  the  State  of  Texas  of 
Its  Institutions  of  Higher  Education. 


160  MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES 

comparisons  "if  carried  out  understandingly,"  and  then  explains: 
"Unlike  the  ordinary  factory  or  construction  company  whose  sole 
end  is  to  manufacture  and  construct  at  the  lowest  cost,  we  may 
compare  the  college  or  university  to  the  manufacture  of  some  spe- 
cially fine  piece  of  machinery  or  tool,  where  the  cost  of  the  material 
or  workmanship  upon  it  is  not  a  consideration,  or  to  the  construc- 
tion of  a  palace  or  temple  where  the  cost  of  marble  is  only  a  consid- 
eration in  so  far  as  the  amount  of  money  raised  for  its  erection 
must  not  be  exceeded.  The  output  of  the  college  or  university  is 
the  most  wonderful  piece  of  machinery  known — the  brain ;  and  what 
is  more  important  still,  the  temple  it  constructs,  the  character  it 
builds,  is  fashioned  after  the  likeness  of  God.  Therefore  the  cost 
of  tuition  per  capita  cannot  be  a  consideration  in  the  same  manner 
as  other  operation  expenses,  except  in  so  far  that  the  total  amount 
expended  must  be  in  conformity  with  your  revenues." 

Mr.  Cooke  prints  a  table  giving  "Expense  per  Student"  and 
"Receipts  per  Student"  for  nine  schools  or  colleges  of  Yale  Univer- 
sity. Those  units,  he  says,  are  too  large,  and  claims  that  the 
smaller  units,  department  and  student-hour,  would  enable  one 
"to  separate  those  items  of  expense  which  should  be  the  same  for 
all  departments  from  those  which  necessarily  vary  in  the  different 
•departments."  Would  they?  Consider:  Two  departments  "pro- 
ducing" the  same  number  of  student-hours  show  a  different  cost 
per  student-hour.  If  you  make  the  unwarranted  assumption  that 
this  fact  proves  that  the  difference  is  due  to  "necessary"  fac- 
tors, how  are  you  enlightened  as  to  what  items  of  expense  ought  to 
be  the  same?  If  you  do  not  make  that  assumption,  how  are  you 
told  what  items  ought  to  be  different  ?  Accounts  tell  the  authorities 
whether  the  salary  of  a  law  professor  or  a  professor  of  medicine 
exceeds  that  of  some  academic  instructor;  they  could  tell  on  Mr. 
•Cooke's  plan,  the  charge  against  each  department  for  grounds  and 
buildings  et  cetera;  they  can  tell  that  cadavers  and  dissecting  in- 
struments or  chemical  apparatus  and  reagents,  have  cost  more  than 


MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES  161 

the  departmental  library  for  economics;  but  neither  the  accounts 
nor  the  business  manager  (officially)  can  tell  whether  these  facts 
ought  to  be  as  they  are  or  otherwise. 

The  data  for  Yale  shows  that  the  least  "expense  per  student"  is 
in  the  Law  School  ($177.14),  and  the  greatest  in  medicine 
($396.90),  forestry  ($469.39),  and  theology  ($641.03)— with  "re- 
ceipts per  student,"  of  $122.86  in  law,  $130.22  in  medicine; 
$119.17  in  forestry;  none  in  theology.  Mr.  Cooke  says:  "Earn- 
ings should  be  handled  in  the  same  way  [as  expenses].  Tuition 
fees  should  be  prorated  to  the  various  departments  in  proportion  to 
the  amount  of  tuition  furnished.  If  special  fees  are  chargedJL_as 
in  laboratory  work,  the  department  receiving  them  should  be  given 
credit  for  this  amount  of  earnings.  In  this  way  the  gross  and  net 
expenses  of  each  department  can  be  figured  out.  If  this  is  done,  it 
will  probably  result  in  a  material  readjustment  of  the  scale  of 
charges  now  in  force."  If  it  is  done,  the  probability  is,  indeed, 
as  he  states :  that  is  the  point  I  would  have  the  reader  ponder.  If 
the  excess  of  expense  over  receipts  for  tuition  in  each  department 
be  regarded  as  the  net  cost  per  student  for  that  department,  Yale 
University,  according  to  Mr.  Cooke,  ought  to  be  guided  in  its  under- 
takings and  policies  by  its  business  manager's  report  that  the  net 
cost  per  annum  per  student  was  $54.28  in  law,  $266.68  in  medicine., 
$350.22  in  forestry,  $641.03  in  theology.  There  is,  it  is  asserted, 
somehow  a  "gauge  or  measure"  of  "efficiency"  in  these  figures, — or 
would  be  if  we  reduced  the  cost  per  student  to  cost  per  student- 
hour,  which  would  probably  suggest  a  still  more  shocking  ineffi- 
ciency for  medicine  and  forestry  and  theology. 

The  revenue  accounts  should  classify  receipts  from  fees  for  tui- 
tion according  to  the  terms*  in  which  they  are  levied,  and  the  facts 


*E.  g.,  laboratory  fees  would  show  the  departments  in  which  they  orig- 
inated, but  a  general  fee  for  tuition  in  a  college  of  arts  and  sciences,  or 
school  of  engineering,  would  not  be  prorated  to  departments  according  to 
the  courses  taken  by  each  student. 


162  MISTAKEN    ANALOGIES 

should  bo  reported  in  the  statement  of  revenues.  That  is  enough.  The 
facts  would  be  at  hand  if  an  occasion  for  examining  any  policy  in 
view  of  them  should  arise.  The  account  with  each  department 
would  be  simply  the  properly  classified  expenditures  for  its  main- 
tenance. It  would  serve  no  good  purpose  to  prorate  all  other  ex- 
penses of  the  institution  in  charges  against  the  teaching  depart- 
ments, and  credit  their  accounts  by  prorated  tuition  fees.  An 
insidiously  disorganizing  spirit  might  spring  from  the  false  em- 
phasis and  affirmative  errors  of  such  a  practice.  I  say  affirmative 
errors,  because,  in  reality,  the  departments  for  which  the  fees  are 
lowest  have  a  large  part  (from  the  general  attendance  and  prestige 
acquired  by  the  institution  through  them)  in  earning  the  fees 
charged  in  other  departments.  The  different  fees  charged  for 
tuition  in  different  departments,  and  free  tuition  in  some,  are 
questions  of  policy  in  the  sphere  of  general  administration.  The 
differences  do  not,  or  should  not,  affect  the  work  or  the  salaries  in 
any  department. 

I  am  constrained  to  point  out  one  more  misconception  through 
which  Mr.  Cooke  has  darkened  counsel.  After  measuring  the  prod- 
ucts of  a  university  by  the  student-hour,  he  insists  that  the  produc- 
ers must  be  estimated  by  means  of  time  cards.  We  must  get  a 
unit  for  the  working  as  well  as  for  the  work  of  these  professors. 
The  time  spent  with  students,  he  avers,  is  "the  equivalent  of  what 
is  called  the  'productive'  time  of  other  workers/3  With  apologic- 
for  the  term  "productive  time."  he  continues:  "In  any  study  of 
the  college  teacher  as  a  producer,  his  productive  time,  i.  e..  the 
time  he  spends  with  his  students,  must  be  determined.  ...  In 
studying  the  efficiency  of  any  worker  one  must  determine,  first, 
what  the  worker  is  employed  to  do ;  second,  it  must  be  ascertained 
how  much  time  he  puts  in  on  this  work;  and,  third,  it  must  be 
determined  how  relatively  efficient  he  is  while  so  engaged."  The 
third  conundrum  has  been  disposed  of  by  means  of  the  student- 
hour.  The  first  and  second  must  be  solved,  else  we  sit  in  darkness. 


MISTAKEN    ANALOGIES  163 

With  the  usual  kindly  protestation!?  of  his  recognition  that  there 
is  "a  background"  of  quality  everywhere,  and  that  laboratory  hours 
should  perhaps  be  weighted  three  to  one  in  comparison  with  lecture 
hours,  the  industrial  organizer  blithely  proceeds  to  investigate  and 
estimate  eighty-two  university  teachers  in  a  model  fashion : 

He  decides  that  the  time  considered  should  be  between  eight 
a.  m.  and  six  p.  m.  for  thirty  teaching  weeks.  He  explains  :  "Many 
of  the  professors  desired  to  make  a  report  on  what  they  did  with 
their  time  after  six  p.  m.,  and  others  desired  an  opportunity  to 
show  what  they  did  with  their  time  in  the  summer  months — on 
research  and  in  preparation  for  the  next  school  year.  ...  It  did 
not  seem  desirable  to  go  outside  of  the  hours  between  eight  and  six, 
which  for  the  business  and  professional  man  is  considered  a  working 
day."  So?  Is  there  here  a  lapsus  linguae  in  saying  "professional 
man"  when  the  speaker  was  thi-nking  'factory  hand'  ?  And  aside 
from  the  '^working  day"  question,  would  Mr.  Cooke  (still  recog- 
nizing quality  in  the  "background'')  consider  it  illuminating  and 
important  to  ascertain  the  time  spent  on  a  physician's  diagnosis,  a 
surgeon's  operation,  a  lawyer's  opinion,  a  musician's  symphony,  a 
preacher's  sermon  ?  But  if  university  teachers  are  to  be  estimated 
by  +ime  cards,  it  makes  little  difference  whether  their  superintend- 
ents consider  the  truth,  or  limit  scrutiny  to  the  hours  between  8 
a.  m.  and  6  p.  m, — they  will  get  statistics,  and  business  managers 
can  "keep  track"  and  advise,  as  easily  one  way  as  the  other.  The 
records,  we  are  advised,  should  give  analysis  of  the  working  day  for 
every  teacher  as  follows : 

HOUBS  PER  WEEK — BETWEEN  8  A.  M.  AND  6  p.  M. 

1.     Time   Spent  with   Students. 

Laboratory  Exercises — only  absolute  appointments. 

Lectures. 

Recitations — hours  usually  so  devoted  may  be  used  for  lectures. 

Consultations — only  regularly  kept  office  hours. 


164  MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES 

2.  Time  Spent  on  Research. 

Only  hours  followed  with  approximately  the  same  regularity  as 
the  other  heads. 

3.  Miscellaneous. 

Preparation  for  Lectures — only  time  given  regularly  at  same  hour 

and  same  place  each  week. 
Preparation  for  Recitations. 
Preparation  for  Laboratory. 
Meetings — faculty,  committee,  etc. 
Administrative. 
Correcting  Papers,  etc. 
Study. 
Bookwriting,  etc. 

Such  a  table  is  made  out  for  eighty-two  subjects,  who  were 
warned :  "Unless  a  high  degree  of  accuracy  is  aimed  at,  the  com- 
parison will  lose  much  of  its  value."  The  data  is  reduced  in  a 
second  table,  which,  it  is  affirmed,  will  "give  an  idea  of  the  value 
of  a  'productive'  hour  for  each  grade  [of  teachers]."  The  second 
table  gives  the  salaries,  and  the  "money  value  of  time  spent  with 
students,"  etc.  In  the  illustrative  case  the  average  annual  salary 
for  20  full  professors  was  $3800.00,  giving  average  salary  per 
teaching  week  $126.66;  average  salary  per  hour,  $3.66;  average 
salary  per  hour  with  students,  $9.57.  For  assistant  professors  the 
figures  $1954.00,  $65.13,  $1.83,  $4.46;  and  for  instructors 
$1236.00,  $41.20,  $1.20,  $2.33,  were  obtained. 

If  a  reader  having  any  knowledge  of  what  college  teaching  is  or 
ought  to  be,  or  of  how  it  is  done  or  ought  to  be  done,  sees,  in  spite 
of  that  knowledge,  any  propriety  in  such  records, — I  do  not  know 
how  to  argue  with  him.  Most  of  the  items  are  absurdly  untrue  in 
their  titles,  for  instance  "preparation  for  lectures"  is  nowise  ascer- 
tained by  counting  time  spent  thereon  between  8  a.  m.  and  6  p.  m. 
at  the  same  hour  and  same  place  each  week.  That  is  utterly  ab- 
surd. But  even  if  all  the  time  spent  at  different  hours  and  places 


MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES  165 

could  be  known,  nothing  of  any  importance  would  be  known  about 
the  teacher's  preparation. 

A  sense  of  humor  would  be  helpful  to  save  our  universities  from 
misapplied  business  methods.  Gentle  ridicule  might  be  a  better 
prophylactic  against  the  adoption  of  inapplicable  methods,  than  in- 
dignant argument.  Mr.  Cooke  gives,  unconsciously,  a  fine  example 
of  the  genial  wisdom  of  Dr.  Eliot.  At  several  points  he  mentions 
the  difficulties  he  experienced  at  Harvard  in  finding  out  what  he 
wanted  to  know  in  order  to  prorate  to  the  teaching  departments 
charges  for  interest  on  the  value  of  lands  and  buildings,  etc.  At 
one  point  he  reports  a  rejoinder  by  the  president :  "Dr.  Eliot,  then 
president  of  Harvard  University,  said:  'We  try  to  come  as  near 
forgetting  the  value  of  our  lands  and  buildings  as  possible.' ': 
The  humor  of  this,  in  the  circumstances,  was  lost  on  the  industrial 
engineer,  but  the  story  is  a  contribution  to  the  sanity  as  well  as  to 
the  gaiety  of  nations.  It  would  have  been  better  had  the  eighty- 
two  college  teachers  laughed  a  little,  instead  of  pleading  to  be 
allowed  to  tell  what  they  did  after  6  p.  m.,  if  respect  for  the 
high  credentials  carried  by  the  inquisitor  constrained  them  to 
fill  out  the  time  cards.  The  same  request  from  any  official  of  their 
own  institutions  should  have  been  treated  as  all  self-reliant  men 
treated  it  at  Harvard  University,  when  some  one  in  the  business 
offices  took  it  into  his  head  last  January  to  adopt  some  of  the  meas- 
ures recommended  in  the  bulletin  of  the  great  Foundation,  in  which 
Mr.  Cooke's  advice  is  published.  The  present  writer  happened  to 
be  visiting  at  Harvard  just  after  time  cards  had  been  sent  to  the 
faculty  from  the  comptroller's  office,  with  a  request  that  "all 
time  spent  in  the  interest  of  the  university"  be  recorded  under 
certain  headings.  As  far  as  I  know  the  men  smiled  or  frowned 
and  threw  the  schedule  blanks  away,  or  put  them  aside  as  a  curios- 
ity. The  next  day  in  New  York  I  read  the  editorial  in  the  Evening 
Post  for  Jan.  7,  1913,  which  was  reprinted  in  Science  for  Jan.  17, 
1913.  I  heard  of  no  threats  such  as  the  paper  alludes  to, — the 


166  MISTAKEN    ANALOGIES 

thing  seemed  to  be  regarded  as  too  absurd  and  impossible  not  to  be 
a  mistake.  Of  course,  some  one,  less  cool  and  discrete,  must  have 
given  the  facts  to  the  newspapers  before  the  president  had  time 
to  revoke  the  action  of  the  business  office.  The  editorial  in  the 
Evening  Post  was  headed  "The  Efficiency  Xostrum  at  Harvard." 
It  is  wise  counsel,  fitly  spoken : 

"  'Harvard  professors  and  instructors,'  so  goes  a  newspaper  account, 
'are  thoughtfully  rubbing  troubled  brows  today  while  they  ponder  over  an 
intricate  network  of  blanks  and  spaces  whereon  Assistant  Controller  Taylor 
has  requested  them  to  record  the  exact  disposition  which  they  make  of  all 
time  spent  in  the  interests  of  the  university.'  The  assistant  controller 
states  that  he  desires  these  data  for  the  purpose  of  using  them  'as  a  basis 
for  prorating  salaries  to  the  various  classified  functions.'  The  assistant 
controller  recognizes  that  the  variations  in  such  data  due  to  the  personal 
equation  'would  make  impracticable  the  direct  use  of  these  figures  for  the 
purpose  of  distributing  salaries,'  but  nevertheless  he  is  apparently  of  the 
opinion  that  they  would  be  a  comfortable  thing  to  have,  and  so  he  asks 
for  them.  .  .  . 

"In  sober  truth,  this  news  from  Harvard  is  a  very  serious  matter. 
.  .  .  It  ought  to  bring  out  from  the  Harvard  faculty,  and  especially 
from  the  men  of  light  and  leading  in  that  faculty,  an  impressive  protest; 
and  the  most  impressive  form  the  protest  could  take  would  be  that  of  a 
dignified  but  firm  refusal  to  comply  with  the  demand  made  upon 
them.  .  .  . 

"To  be  a  university  professor  has  hitherto  meant,  in  this  country,  as 
in  all  the  world,  to  give  to  the  university  yourself — your  personality, 
your  talent,  your  capacity  to  interest,  to  instruct,  to  inspire.  Many  pro- 
fessors have,  to  be  sure,  fallen  short  of  fulfilling  this  ideal;  .  .  .  but 
the  recognition  of  the  personal  nature  of  the  professor's  work,  of  a  dis- 
tinctively personal  measurement  of  his  value,  has  never  been  abandoned. 
It  is  Agassiz,  or  Child,  or  Martin,  or  Gibbs,  or  Norton,  or  Gildersleeve — 
not  so  many  hours  of  their  labor — that  Harvard,  or  Yale,  or  Johns  Hop- 
kins has  had  the  good  fortune  to  possess;  and  every  faithful  and  com- 
petent professor  has  a  right  to  feel  that  the  same  is  true  of  him  in  his 
degree.  .  .  . 

"It  is  easy  to  accuse  those  who  object  to  the  introduction  of  this  effi- 
ciency nostrum  of  being  reactionaries — upholders  of  the  doctrine  that  what- 


MISTAKEN    ANALOGIES  167 

ever  is  is  right.  But  it  is  still  easier  to  reply  to  the  accusation.  Not 
because  our  universities  and  colleges  are  all  that  they  ought  to  be,  but 
because  the  proposed  remedy  is  a  crude  and  barbarous  one,  do  we  reject 
that  remedy. 

"We  ought  to  have  more  competent  teachers,  we  ought  to  have  more 
inspiring  leaders  of  research;  but  we  shall  not  get  them  by  means  of  time 
checks  or  card  catalogues.  .  .  .  When  you  have  got  all  your  time-card 
and  efficiency-measure  mechanism  going,  you  may  be  able  to  compel  every 
professor  to  come  up  to  a  certain  standard;  but  you  cannot  compel  the 
men  whom  you  ought  to  have  as  professors  to  enter  the  calling.  You 
may  get  the  same  amount  of  'results'  out  of  the  faculties  for  less  money, 
or  a  greater  amount  for  the  same  money,  so  far  as  'results'  can  be  meas- 
ured by  your  mechanical  methods;  but  what  you  have  lost  you  will  never 
be  able  to  measure.  And  what  shall  it  profit  the  university  to  have 
gained  countless  student-hours  and  experiment-units  and  to  have  lost  what 
is  highest  and  best  in  it?" 

And  later: 

"President  Lowell  has  sent  to  the  members  of  the  Harvard  faculty  a 
statement  which  amounts  to  something  like  a  repudiation  of  the  prepos- 
terous circular  of  inquiry  issued  several  days  ago  in  the  name  of  the 
assistant  controller  of  the  university.  A  more  complete  repudiation  would 
have  been  more  welcome,  but  it  should  be  safe  to  assume  that  Dr.  Lowell's 
statement  that  'answers  were  intended  to  be  wholly  voluntary'  and  that 
'the  recent  circular  was  issued  under  a  misunderstanding'  means  the  end 
of  this  folly.  The  episode  is  one  that  Harvard  should  be  glad  to  forget, 
except  in  so  far  as  it  drew  out — as  it  did,  though  we  are  not  informed  as 
to  what  extent — threats  of  resignation  on  the  part  of  men  who  had  a 
proper  conception  of  the  professor's  calling.  It  is  humiliating  to  think 
that  such  a  protest  should  have  been  made  necessary  at  our  country's  most 
distinguished  seat  of  learning;  but  as  it  has  happened,  we  trust  that  the 
feeling  of  self-respecting  professors  has  been  made  so  manifest  as  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  any  resurrection  of  the  foolish  scheme." 

It  has  been  duly  explained  that  Mr.  Cooke  frequently  pauses  to 
assure  the  reader  of  his  "sympathy  with  the  spiritual  significance 
of  university  life/'  etc.,  and  I  do  not  fail  to  appreciate  his  good 
feeling  and  intention;  but  a  physician's  prescription  is  not  sane- 


168  MISTAKEN    ANALOGIES 

tioned  by  affectionate  regard  for  the  patient.  The  question  for 
this  discussion  has  been  simply  whether  or  not  the  recommended 
practices  would  be  good  business  methods  for  a  university.  It  is 
not  a  question  between  no  business  methods  at  all,  and  the  methods 
he  proposes.  I  insist  on  the  need  of  a  correct  management  of  the 
business  of  a  college  or  university,  as  much  as  he  does. 
But  masterful  knowledge  of  the  business  to  be  managed  is  an  indis- 
pensable qualification  for  judging  the  propriety  and  usefulness  of 
any  procedure. 

Analogies  are  dangerous  ground  for  judgments.  It  is  true 
(to  give  one  more  instance),  as  Mr.  Cooke  says:  "In  the  in- 
dustrial world  it  is  considered  essential  to  give  a  man  some  drill 
before  he  is  allowed  to  sell  books  or  a  cash  register;"  but  he  errs 
in  basing  on  that  fact  his  suggestion  of  a  "bureau  of  inspection" 
and  an  agency  for  "coaching  in  class-room  methods"  the  younger 
instructors  in  a  university.  The  analogy  for  a  process  or  method 
could  not  hold,  in  any  case,  unless  we  wanted  analogous  results.  We 
are  familiar  with  the  style  of  the  "drilled"  salesman  of  books  and 
cash  registers.  An  "academic-industrial"  adviser  must  permit  us  to 
judge  whether  a  style  at  all  analogous  would  improve  the  efficiency 
of  teachers.  The  style  of  the  drilled  and  managed  man  is  stamped 
on  him.  It  should  be  understood,  also,  that  the  coached  salesmen 
would  be  more  efficient  if  they  had  learned  to  know  their  books  or 
their  cash  registers  and  their  public  more  gradually.  The  sales 
managers  merely  do  the  best  they  can  to  supply  a  substitute  for 
a  superior  knowledge,  and  the  "talking  points"  they  give  the  sales- 
men are  analogous,  not  to  anything  that  could  be  done  for  univer- 
sity instructors  by  a  class-room  inspector,  but  to  the  studies  of  those 
instructors  before  they  began  to  teach.  The  youngest  university 
instructors  have  usually  had  at  least  six  years  of  university  life, 
studying  under  many  different  teachers  and  knowing  student  work 
and  life  at  first  hand.  I  recognize  and  deplore  far  more  poignantly 
than  Mr.  Cooke  seems  to  do  the  shortcomings  of  many  college 


MISTAKEN   ANALOGIES  169 

'"lU*-!* 
teachers,  but  I  know  that  a  bureau  of  inspection  and  drilling  would 

make  matters  worse.  As  to  the  time-cards,  even  if  they  were  not 
positively  injurious,  they  would  have  no  bearing  upon  the  actual 

fc£- .  - 

shortcomings.  On  the  contrary,  college  teachers  generally  drudge 
too  incessantly.  Mr.  Cooke  himself  observed  this  fact,  and  re- 
marks in  another  connection:  "It  is  impossible  to  believe  that 
men  with  so  little  relaxation  do  not  suffer  from  excessive  concen- 
tration." Lack  of  application,  such  as  it  may  be,  is  not  a  considera" 
ble  fault  of  college  teachers.  The  real  shortcomings  of  those  who 
are  at  fault  are  of  an  entirely  different  order — lack  of  scholarship, 
lack  of  vigor,  native  weakness  of  the  mind's  analytical  powers, 
and  the  moral  obliquities  manifested  by  careless  law-making  and 
by  violations  of  concrete  justice  or  propriety  in  applying  to  in- 
dividuals overweening  general  rules  for  the  government  of  stu- 
dents.* Time-cards,  or  any  form  of  surveillance,  would  aggra- 
vate the  real  troubles.  The  true  administrative  remedies  lie  in 
(1)  proper  organization  of  the  whole  institution,  (2)  correct 
principles  and  proper  care  in  making  first  appointments,  and 
(3)  a  better  discrimination  of  true  worth  in  advancing  indi- 
viduals to  higher  positions  pr  otherwise  conferring  prominence 
and  influence.  Distressing  as  it  may  be  to  industrial  engineers,  it 
is  impossible  to  measure  the  products  of  colleges  and  universities 
by  any  "units"  whatsoever,  nor  is  there  any  definite  relation  be- 
tween product  and  cost.  President  Pritchett  wisely  warns: 
"There  is  no  gain  to  be  had  by  presenting  a  series  of  statistics 
unless  they  warrant  some  conclasion  concerning  the  operations 
which  they  represent." 


*In  almost  every  faculty  there  are  some  individuals  who  in  their  de- 
meanor toward  students,  even  more  than  in  the  formal  measures  they 
advocate,  manifest  a  total  ignorance  of  the  respect  due  to  the  proper 
privacies  of  personality  upon  which  manly  responsibility  and  self-reliance 
must  be  founded.  Upon  such  respect  of  personality  all  that  mankind  has 
deemed  good  manners  and  reliability  of  character,  whether  in  prince  or 
peasant,  has  hitherto  been  founded  and  maintained. 


170  SUGGESTIONS 

Suggestions 

It  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  if  a  proper  business  manage- 
ment had  not  been  neglected  by  many  colleges  and  universities, 
there  would  be  no  occasion  for  the  outcry  that  has  been  raised 
against  their  obvious  omission,  or  for  the  mistaken  advice  of  some 
who  have  been  called  to  counsel.  The  blame — if  blame  need  be 
spoken  of — rests  upon  neglectful  regents  and  presidents  and  fac- 
ulties. It  is  to  the  sick  man  that  prescriptions  and  diagnoses  are 
offered  by  friends  and  acquaintances.  The  splendid  series  of  bul- 
letins and  annual  reports  issued  by  the  Foundation  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Teaching  have  given  a  great  deal  of  truly  expert  ad- 
vice, and  have  been  very  serviceable.  Even  this  bulletin  publishing 
Mr.  Cooke's  study  of  "Academic  and  Industrial  Efficiency"  offers 
many  criticisms  that  should  be  heeded.  His  ideas  aJbout  measuring 
and  securing  efficiency,  and  methods  of  cost-analysis  are  doubtless 
mistaken  for  a  university — based  on  false  analogies ;  but  the  follow- 
ing running  references  show  that  Mr.  Cooke  observed  and  under- 
stood some  things  to  which  college  authorities  need  to  give  intelli- 
gent attention : 

"The  proper  functions  of  the  board  of  directors  would  be,  for  instance, 
to  select,  after  having  proper  evidence  presented  to  it  the  broad  and 
general  type  of  management.  .  .  .  They  should  not  mess  into  the 
detail  of  the  personnel.  .  .  .  Nor  should  they  vote  a  reduction  of 
wages  or  an  increase  of  wages  contrary  to  the  leadership  of  the  president. 
.  .  .  The  president  should  lead  his  board  rather  than  be  a  tool  to  be 
guided  by  them  in  detail;  and  when  it  becomes  impossible  for  the  president 
to  lead  in  the  carrying  out  of  the  general  policy  of  the  board,  another 
man  should  be  selected  for  the  head  of  the  business  who  is  competent  to 
lead  them.  .  .  . 

"At  Princeton,  while  as  a  matter  of  practice  the  departments  were 
allowed  to  attend  to  the  details — and  only  occasionally  were  they  upset — 
the  most  unintelligent  counsel  prevailed  at  times  on  matters  of  real 
moment.  In  other  words,  there  were  no  bounds  to  the  authority  of  those 
'higher  up'  when  they  cared  to  use  it.  One  or  two  committees  of  the 


SUGGESTIONS  171 

board  of  trustees  had  the  power  to  enter  almost  every  nook  and  corner 
of  the  educational  structure.  This  inspection  of  course  would  be  all 
right — excellent — if  it  were  made  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  that  the  general 
policies  were  being  carried  out;  but  too  frequently  there  is  no  permanent 
general  policy  and  these  acts  are  the  promptings  of  personal  whims  or 
prejudices.  Everyone  from  the  president  down  told  me  that  committee 
management  was  adopted  because  it  was  a  democratic  form  of  government. 
The  result  struck  me  as  being  a  far  cry  from  real  democracy." 

"The  world's  experience  in  all  directions  has  demonstrated  the  utter 
impracticability  of  doing  successfully  executive  work  under  the  manage- 
ment of  a  body  of  men  either  large  or  small.  A  committee  of  one  is  the 
best  committee  to  have  in  charge  of  executive  work.  .  .  .  Almost 
invariably  under  committee  management  there  is  the  spectacle  of  three 
or  more  men  wasting  precious  time  in  deciding  questions  outside  their 
own  fields,  which  could  be  better  and  far  more  quickly  decided  by  a  single 
expert,  whose  time  might  be  worth  less  than  that  of  any  one  of  the 
three  or  six  men  on  the  committee.  .  .  . 

"After  having  seen  both  the  military  type  of  management  and  committee 
management,  apparently  each  at  its  best,  the  writer  is  convinced  that, 
in  the  educational  world  as  in  the  industrial  world,  neither  of  them  will 
give  the  best  results.  The  way  out  lies  through  functional  management." 

"If  there  is  one  thing  that  stands  out  as  an  example  of  inefficiency,  it 
is  the  degree  of  use  to  which  college  buildings  are  put.  ...  I  found 
one  magnificent  lecture  hall  on  the  second  floor  of  a  building,  standing  on 
land  worth  approximately  twenty-five  dollars  a  square  foot,  in  use  six 
hours  a  week — and  this  is  an  institution  which  is  undoubtedly  handicapped 
for  [by]  lack  of  room.  .  .  . 

"The  management  of  all  buildings  should  be  in  the  hands  of  some  central 
authority.*  ...  A  professor  in  one  department  has  not  the  information 
about  the  conditions  in  another  department  that  would  make  it  possible 
for  him  to  lend  the  rooms  or  borrow  them  to  advantage.  This  is  what 
they  are  supposed  to  do  now,  and  there  is  little  of  it  done.  .  .  . 

"One  measure  that  will  make  possible  a  larger  use  of  rooms  is  the  ahift- 


*Mr.  Cooke  would  put  rooms  up  to  auction  to  the  departments  at  charges 
scaled  to  desirability,  in  his  system  of  charging  to  the  teaching  depart- 
ments all  expenses  and  interest  on  all  grounds  and  buildings;  but  I  am 
now  quoting  only  his  good  ideas. 


172  SUGGESTIONS 

ing  of  the  hours  at  which  certain  lectures  and  recitations  occur.  It  used 
to  be  accepted  that  all  recitations  must  occur  in  the  morning  and  labora- 
tory practice  in  the  afternoon.  Gradually  this  old  order  has  been  more 
or  less  modified,  but  if  a  central  authority  had  to  pass  on  all  schedules 
and  would  study  each  with  regard  to  its  relations  to  all  the  others  and 
to  the  buildings,  much  further  progress  could  be  made." 

"At  the  University  of  Toronto,  after  every  laboratory  exercise  the  appa- 
ratus which  has  been  in  use  by  the  students  is  put  away.  If  it  is  bulky 
and  the  table  large,  the  apparatus  is  placed  at  the  far  end  of  the  table 
and  lined  up  with  it.  A  neat  unbleached  muslin  covering  is  then  placed 
over  it.  In  other  words  each  section  leaves  the  laboratory  free  for  the 
use  of  any  section  that  comes  after  it  and  the  remarkable  part  of  this 
is  that  in  this  particular  laboratory  there  is  so  much  space  that  there 
is  no  necessity  for  its  conservation.  It  is  done  I  was  informed  largely 
out  of  consideration  for  the  development  of  the  characters  of  the  students 
and  to  teach  them  habits  of  neatness.  I  have  never  seen  such  a  well- 
ordered  building  anywhere.  Any  industrial  establishment  with  which  I 
am  familiar  can  learn  from  the  Physics  Department  of  the  University  of 
Toronto  in  the  matter  of  housekeeping.  Every  other  laboratory  I  visited 
had  more  or  less  to  criticise  in  this  respect." 

"Nearly  every  department  has  a  policy  it  is  working  on  or  some  field 
peculiar  to  itself  that  it  is  trying  to  cover.  And  yet  in  studying  their 
literature  it  is  very  difficult  oftentimes  to  discover  this.  ...  At  no 
two  of  the  colleges  visited  was  the  same  system  for  designating  courses  in 
use.  Several  of  these  systems  were  almost  impossible  for  an  outsider  to 
understand.  ...  It  was  suggested  to  me  that  in  some  of  these  matters 
it  will  be  better  to  design  an  entirely  new  system  than  to  attempt  to  build 
even  on  the  best  of  those  now  in  use.  .  .  .  The  editors  of  college 
catalogues  must  learn  that  it  is  not  enough  to  state  a  thing  correctly, 
but  it  must  be  stated  so  that  the  average  person  who  reads  it  can  under- 
stand it." 

"At  Columbia  University  they  have  adopted  the  plan  of  trying  to 
emphasize  the  importance  of  dealing  with  each  student  individually 
.  .  .  rather  than  dealing  with  the  students  in  masses.  .  .  . 

"At  the  last  college  which  I  visited,  almost  the  opposite  policy  was  in 
operation.  Every  time  the  students  were  mentioned  there  were  evidences 
that  the  teachers  had  in  mind  the  students'  scholarly  inferiority  and  way- 


SUGGESTIONS  173 

wardnese.      The  difference  in  these  two  attitudes  was  as  concrete-  as  any- 
thing I  encountered." 

"Increase  in  the  efficiency  of  the  teaching  staff  will  he  obtained  through 
such  specializing  as  will  come  as  the  result  of  functional  management. 
Without  a  more  careful  analysis,  it  is  impossible  to  predict  the  extent 
to  which  this  can  be  carried.  There  are  some  things,  however,  that  are 
clear.  During  the  interviews  which  the  writer  had  with  college  pro- 
fessors, he  found  them  spending  time  in  taking  inventories,  keeping  track 
of  appropriations,  mimeographing  examination  papers,  and  handling  routine 
correspondence.  These  things  are  clerical  work,  and  should  be  handled 
outside  of  the  teaching  field,  and  not  as  a  part  of  the  teacher's  duties. 
In  addition,  there  are  many  other  things,  including  management  of  the 
buildings  and  departments,  which  might  easily  be  centralized  and  done 
by  officials  who  can  devote  their  time  exclusively  to  them.  Such  changes 
would  leave  the  professor  more  time  for  the  work  for  which  he  is  espe- 
cially fitted." 

It  has  been  a  matter  for  wonderment  by  many  critics,  that  any 
sort  of  acquaintance  with  college  work  should  not  have  made  it 
plain  to  governing  boards,  to  say  nothing  of  presidents,  that  a 
professor's  time  is  too  valuable  to  be  spent  on  mechanical  details 
of  administrative  and  clerical  work  for  which  suitable  arrangements 
could  be  made  so  easily  at  less  expense.  It  is  extravagant  pecun- 
iarly  and  wasteful  of  the  essential  resources  of  the  institution  to 
compel  its  most  highly  paid  and  most  important  workers  to  con- 
sume a  large  part  of  their  time  in  doing  things  that  would  be 
better  done  by  other  workers.  It  is  the  plain  demand  of  common 
business  sense,  dependent  upon  no  false  analogy,  that  the  teaching 
departments  be  given  such  clerks  as  would  release  the  teachers 
from  time-consuming  tasks  that  a  young  office  assistant  could  do  as 
well  as  a  member  of  the  faculty.  Also,  under  proper  functional 
division  and  management  of  the  affairs  common  to  all  or  many 
departments,  much  clerical  work  that  now  wastes  the  time  and 
strength  of  a  hundred  members  of  the  faculty  would  be  attended  to 
in  several  central  offices.  By  a  slight  increase  of  clerical  force 


174  SUGGESTIONS 

the  work  would  be  performed  more  effectively,  and  hitherto  wasted 
time  and  energy  of  teachers  would  be  added  to  the  truly  effective 
forces  of  the  institution.  Of  course,  all  arrangements  should  be 
instituted  and  conducted  so  as  to  relieve  and  help  the  teaching 
departments  without  hindering  or  interfering  with  their  proper 
work  and  freedom. 

If  the  business  management  of  such  an  institution  as  a  university 
is  rightly  understood,  it  will  always  be  possible  to  make  arrange- 
ments satisfactory  both  to  the  workers  in  the  teaching  depart- 
ments and  the  offices  of  administration.  The  latter  should  exist 
only  to  serve  the  former.  There  is  no  open  dispute  about  the 
theory  of  the  last  statement,  but  it  has  been  too  long  assumed  that 
practice  comports  with  the  theory.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  very 
whims  of  administrative  departments  commonly  override  interests 
which  administration  ought  to  subserve.  Many  a  time  the  real  or 
fancied  convenience,  or  ill-conceived  idea,  of  some  clerk  has  been 
the  true  origin  of  an  executive  order,  inconsiderately  issued  by 
regents,  president,  or  dean,  imposing  upon  the  professoriate  some 
onerous  and  exasperating  requirement.  It  is  time  that  the  truth 
about  such  things  should  no  longer  be  suppressed  by  feelings  of 
loyalty  or  charity.  It  is,  indeed,  more  pointedly  to  the  interest 
of  university  presidents  than  university  professors,  that  the  risrht 
function  and  spirit  of  administration  should  be  fully  recognized 
by  all  concerned. 

There  is  perhaps  no  more  distinguished  efficiency  engineer  than 
Mr.  Harrington  Emerson.  I  am  not  aware  that  he  has  ever  con- 
sidered the  organization  and  administration  of  colleges  and  univer- 
sities; but  one  who  knows  how  to  discern  the  spirit  and  caliber  of 
a  man  from  his  discursive  literary  expression  upon  any  subject, 
may  infer  from  Mr.  Emerson's  v/ritings  on  industrial  efficiency 
that  he  would  not  fail  to  keep  in  mind  the  nature  and  purposes 
and  proper  conditions  of  educational  work  and  scholarly  research, 
if  he  were  consulted  about  institutions  of  higher  education. 


SUGGESTIONS  175 

"Ideals  must  precede  selective  action,"  is  his  fundamental  predica- 
tion, and  "Know  the  spirit  rather  than  the  externals  of  your  busi- 
ness/' is  one  of  his  maxims.  In  his  most  recent  hook,  Twelve 
Principles  of  Efficiency  (1913).  he  makes  "Clearly  Denned  Ideals" 
•the  first  of  the  twelve  principles.  He  understands  too:  "It  is 
not  either  the  right  or  the  privilege  of  the  Efficiency  Engineer  to 
set  up  ideals  of  morality,  goodness,  or  beauty  .  .  .  but  he  has  a 
right  to  expect  that  some  definite  ideal  will  be  set  up  so  that  at 
the  start  its  possible  incompatability  with  one  or  more  of  the 
efficiency  principles  may  be  pointed  out."  An  ideal  to  which 
profits  are  made  subsidiary  may  be,  he  says,  "an  admirable  foun- 
dation on  which  to  build  a  highly  efficient  organization,  for,  in 
corporations  as  in  individuals,  what  is  the  profit  of  gaining  the 
whole  world  if  the  soul  is  lost  ?"  The  following  running  quotations 
from  the  book  will  suggest  how  one  expert  student  of  organiza- 
tion and  efficiency  in  general,  might  criticise  the  management 
of  universities: 

"There  have  always  been  two  types  of  organization,  types  that  Mr. 
F.  W.  Taylor  characterizes  as  functional  and  military.  .  .  .  [Yet]  it 
is  von  Moltke's  tremendous  gift  to  the  world  that,  although  a  soldier 
hampered  by  tradition,  he  applied  to  the  army  the  functional  type  of 
organization." 

"Having  two  forms  of  organization  to  choose  from — only  two,  the 
destructively  offensive  and  the  constructively  defensive — we  chose  for  our 
industrial  organization  the  destructively  offensive  type,  and  it  does  not 
work  out,  never  can  and  never  will." 

"The  defective  wolf-pack  type  of  organization  which  still  controls  Ameri- 
can railroads,  American  industrial  plants,  is  one  in  which  a  chief  issues 
arbitrary  orders  to  his  subordinates  expecting  them  somehow  or  other  to 
execute  them.  The  perfected  organization  for  industrial  upbuilding  and 
efficiency  is  one  in  which  specialists  formulate  the  underlying  principles, 
instruct  as  to  their  application,  and  relentlessly  reveal  both  their  observ- 
ance and  neglect." 

"It  is  all  one  and  the  same  thing,  as  they  are  all  victims  of  a  common 
type  of  organization  resting  on  the  same  principles — individual  arbitrari- 


176  SUGGESTIONS 

ness  at  the  top,  and  delegated  power  down  the  line,  anarchy  everywhere. 
.  .  .  We  who  know  could  fill  volumes  with  modern  illustrations  of  the 
ever  outcropping  evils  due  to  the  destructive  type  of  organization." 

"The  president  was  not  to  blame.  He  had  to  make  a  decision,  and  he 
did  not  have  an  organization  around  him,  over  him,  under  him,  that  auto- 
matically prevented  this  mistake,  equally  disastrous  to  his  company,  to 
his  employes,  and  to  himself." 

"The  tonnage  mania  has  wrought  havoc  when  applied  by  lesser  geniuses 
who,  instead  of  thinking  and  planning  and  organizing,  clamor  for  more 
equipment.  .  .  .  Most  plants  are  over-equipped." 

"Industrial  arbitrariness  by  the  superintendent,  delegated  and  usurped 
power  in  the  foreman,  anarchy  all  along  the  line." 

"The  chief  efficiency  counselor  would  initially  advise  as  to  type  of 
organization,  he  would  ascertain  what  the  ideals  were  and  strive  for  their 
realization." 

"Many  of  the  older  executives  must  today  not  only  fulfil  their  own 
duties,  but  in  addition  see  that  the  inexperienced  one-sided  specialists  do 
not  cause  more  trouble  than  they  cure." 

"The  first  study  of  any  organization  is  to  find  out  to  what  extent  the 
other  prinicples  have  been  applied  to  the  first  prinicple,  Ideals.'  .  .  . 
No  efficiency  principle  stands  alone,  each  supports  and  strengthens  all  the 
rest." 

"Efficiency,  like  hygiene,  is  a  state,  an  ideal,  not  a  method;  but  in 
America  we  have  sought  our  salvation  in  methods." 

"The  spirit  of  a  place  is  intangible,  but  counts  for  more  for  evil  or 
good  than  all  rules  and  punishments  combined.  .  .  .  Under  the  best 
management  there  are  scarcely  any  rules  and  there  are  fewer  punishments." 

"There  is  at  least  one  large  business  aggregation  in  the  United  States 
in  which  a  strike  is  unthinkable  because  it  is  a  coveted  privilege  to  be 
admitted  to  it  as  a  worker,  a  catastrophe  to  be  cast  out,  and  so  high  is 
the  morale  that  the  workers  themselves  make  and  maintain  standards  of 
conduct  far  stricter  than  any  usual  employer  would  dare  to  enforce, 
although  he  may  print  and  post  rule  after  rule." 

"The  way  to  guard  against  trouble  is  to  make  the  position  desired  by 
a  superior  man,  to  allow  it  to  be  filled  only  by  a  superior  man,  to  maintain 
the  position  at  a  high  level." 

"It  is  really  very  much  easier  to  apply  a  few  principles  than  to  remedy 
several  million  defects.  The  easiest  way  is  to  forget  these  defects  in  the 


SUGGESTIONS  177 

past,  ignore  them  for  the   present,  but  constantly  obviate  them  for  the 
future." 

"We  must  reverse  the  administrative  cycle.  .  .  .  The  employer 
exists  solely  to  make  effective  the  totally  different  function  of  the  em- 
ploye. .  .  .  An  incompetent  head,  if  supplemented  by  a  perfect  organ- 
ization, will  often  do  little  harm.  .  .  .  An  inferior  leader,  relying  on 
defective  organization,  without  ideals,  is  bound  to  go  down  in  defeat  and 
to  drag  down  with  him  all  that  he  controls." 

"It  has  often  happened  that  in  industrial  plants  where  high  efficiencies 
were  being  obtained,  visitors  confounding  system  with  efficiency  have  come, 
have  collected  devices,  cards  and  forms,  have  gone  away  supposing  they 
had  the  secret  of  efficiency.  It  is  as  if  a  man  should  appropriate  a 
lawyer's  library  and  think  this  made  him  proficient  in  the  law.  There  are 
millions  of  devices,  forms,  cards;  no  one  can  grasp  them  all,  understand 
them  all,  and  the  chances  are  that  not  one  of  them  will  exactly  fit  in  an 
untried  place." 

"Strenuousness  and  efficiency  are  not  only  not  the  same,  but  are  antag- 
onistic. To  be  strenuous  is  to  put  forth  greater  effort,  to  be  efficient  is 
to  put  forth  less  effort.  .  .  .  All  around  us,  everywhere  nature  has 
been  showing  us  that  increased  result  comes  from  lessened  effort,  not  from 
greater  effort,  but  we  have  been  too  stupid  to  understand.  .  .  .  We 
have  non-reasoned  back  from  results  to  effort,  and  concluded  that  effort 
should  be  gauged  by  result,  which  is  in  accord  with  one  set  of  experiences 
but  wholly  contrary  to  the  larger  experience." 

"In  striving  for  industrial  efficiency  of  operation,  we  have  made  pleas 
for  a  different  type  of  organization — the  defensive,  constructive  organiza- 
tion instead  of  the  offensive,  destructive  organization;  we  have  made  a 
plea  for  definite  high  ideals  instead  of  indefinite  low  ideals;  we  have  made 
a  plea  for  supernal  common  sense  instead  of  near  common  sense." 

"To  select  an  upbuilding  constructive  organization,  carefully  to  deter- 
mine and  adhere  to  ideals,  constantly  to  survey  every  problem  from  a  lofty 
instead  of  near  point  of  view,  to  seek  special  knowledge  and  advice  wher- 
ever they  can  be  found,  to  maintain  from  top  to  bottom  a  noble  discipline, 
to  build  on  the  rock  of  the  golden  rule,  of  the  fair  deal — these  are  the 
general  problems  which  supernal  common  sense  must  immediately  solve. 
.  .  .  It  is  impossible  to  lay  down  rules  or  to  give  sp?ci£c  directions 
as  to  how  we  shall  convert  prejudice  and  ignorance  from  without,  near 
common  sense  within,  into  supernal  common  sense." 


178  REGISTRAR'S  OFFICE 

"Twelve  principles  of  efficiency!  We  began  with  ideals,  we  end  with 
ideals.  Men  must  have  ideals  or  they  cannot  do  good  work;  there  must 
be  possibility  of  highest  efficiency  reward  or  neither  senses,  nor  spirit, 
nor  mind  is  stimulated.  He  who  would  take  ideals  from  the  world's 
workers,  he  who  would  deprive  them  of  the  lure  of  individual  reward  for 
individual  efficiency,  would  indeed  make  them  brother  to  the  ox." 

Registrar's  Office 

If  the  real  business  of  a  college  or  university  were  rightly  con- 
ceived, the  proper  function  of  a  registrar's  office  would  be  regarded 
as  the  most  important  record-keeping  department  of  the  institu- 
tion. As  far  as  records  can  guide  a  wise  administration,  those 
that  ought  to  be  provided  by  the  registrar  would  supply  greater 
assistance  than  the  financial  reports.  The  latter  are  indispensable 
in  order  to  keep  enterprises  within  the  bounds  of  pecuniary  re- 
sources, but  the  purpose  of  a  university  is  not  to  make  money,  and 
its  work  as  undertaken  is  not  directly  helped  by  financial  reports; 
whereas  the  registrar's  reports  should  tell  the  central  authorities, 
as  far  as  reports  can  tell,  what  work  is  being  done,  and  the  regis- 
trar's records  should  give  to  teachers  and  disciplinary  officers  the 
information  about  each  student  that  is  often  needed  for  rightly 
dealing  with  his  studies  or  his  conduct.  It  is  significant  of  the 
perversions  manifested  in  much  of  the  advice  given  by  industrial 
organizers,  that  the  main  use  of  records  concerning  students,  in 
their  opinion,  is  to  enable  a  business  manager  to  figure  "cost  per 
student-hour,"  etc.  This,  in  truth,  is  worse  than  a  perversion,  it  is 
a  veritable  subversion.  Minute  analyses  of  costs,  such  as  have  been 
considered  in  a  previous  section  of  this  chapter,  are  an  injurious 
mistake  in  the  business  management  of  a  university.  But  the 
legitimate  and  necessary  accounts  recording  expenditures,  are  of 
secondary  importance  compared  with  the  records  that  should  be 
kept  by  the  registrar. 

That  the  office  of  registrar  is  so  vaguely  conceived  and  so  care- 
lessly unsystematized,  is  one  of  the  grave  indictments  against  col- 


REGISTRAR'S  OFFICE  179 

lege  faculties  and  presidents  exhibited  in  existing  conditions.  We 
need  not  consider  those  weaker  colleges  which  have  no  registrar, — 
in  which  the  president  or  dean  or  some  professorial  hack  keeps 
some  lists  chiefly  for  making  reports  to  parents.  Consider  only 
the  institutions  that  pay  for  the  officer  and  the  office,  and  yet 
cannot  tell  the  numher  of  regular  students,  the  number  of  condi- 
tioned students,  the  number  of  special  students,  or  the  number 
enrolled  in  any  department.  What  is  the  moral  purport  of  the 
fact  that  so  many  universities,  including  some  of  the  largest  and 
best  supported,  publish  deceitful  statements  about  the  number  of 
their  students?  In  such  statements  it  is  often  impossible  to 
diiferentiate  from  regular  students  girls  taking  piano  lessons,  or 
farmers'  boys  taking  a  several-weeks  course  in  cheese  making.  I 
have  written  and  telegraphed  to  the  registrars  of  state  universities 
begging  to  be  told  the  number  of  students  enrolled  in  a  certain 
department,  and  have  been  answered  that  the  registrar  did  not 
have  at  hand  and  could  not  readily  discover  the  information  re- 
quested. 

The  first  thing  to  be  determined  about  the  registrar  is  his  proper 
function  and  place  in  the  organization.  Prevalent  faults  of  omis- 
sion and  commission  spring  from  thoughtless  or  illogical  decisions 
of  that  question.  With  it  rightly  decided,  many  troubles  would 
cease,  and  procedures  would  naturally  flow  in  appropriate  and  more 
serviceable  channels.  In  existing  practice  the  most  various  re- 
sponsibilities and  powers  are  imposed  on  registrars,  and  the  office 
is  often  fundamentally  misplaced  in  the  organization.  The  funda- 
mental principle  is  correctly  stated  by  President  Eliot  in  his  work 
on  University  Administration:  "Every  faculty  should  keep  care 
ful  records  of  the  academic  career  and  attainments  of  every  student 
under  its  charge,  and  should  found  on  these  records  its  recommen- 
dations for  the  conferring  of  degrees,  and  of  all  other  academic 
distinctions;  and  it  should  provide  for  the  preservation  of  these 
records,  and  their  secure  transmission  from  century  to  century.'7 


180  REGISTRAR'S  OFFICE 

President  Eliot  is  regarded  as  the  chief  champion  of  what  is  called 
the  strong  presidential  administration;  but  he  is  too  clear  minded 
not  to  place  the  registrar's  office  under  its  proper  jurisdiction.  It 
is  inherently  faculty  business.  The  registrar's  direct  chief  should 
be  the  dean  of  the  general  faculty,  just  as  the  accounting  office 
should  look  directly  to  the  business  manager.  If  the  registrar's 
office  is  made  an  appanage  of  the  president's  office,  it  is  dislocated 
at  the  outset.  If  the  president  should  conceive  some  improvement 
to  be  instituted  in  the  registrar's  office,  he  ought  to  recommend  it 
to  the  dean,  or  in  the  faculty — according  to  the  nature  of  the  de- 
sired orders.  The  registrar  should  receive  his  orders  from  the 
dean  of  the  general  faculty. 

It  is  advantageous  to  locate  the  offices  of  all  the  deans  in  prox- 
imity to  the  registrar's  office,  so  as  to  avoid  any  need  of  duplicating 
records.  But  it  is  better  to  duplicate  his  part  of  the  records  for 
the  conveniece  of  an  isolated  dean,  than  to  break  the  completeness 
of  the  files  in  the  registrar's  office.  If  any  branch  of  the  institution 
is  located  apart  from  its  main  seat,  a  branch  registrar's  office  should 
be  there  maintained,  reporting  to  the  main  office  its  general  statis- 
tics in  accordance  with  the  system  adopted. 

It  would  carry  us  too  far  into  details  to  discuss  the  particular 
facts  that  should  be  recorded  in  a  satisfactory  registrar's  office.  In 
his  annual  report  for  1909  President  Pritchett  makes  a  brief  com- 
ment on  the  college  registration  office,  and  offers  a  good  suggestion 
concerning  concert  of  action  among  the  offices  of  college  regis- 
trars : 

"It  is  not  easy  to  steer  midway  between  too  much  machinery  and  too 
little.  The  facts  are,  however,  that  while  in  some  of  the  larger  institu- 
tions the  registration  office  deals  in  too  many  blanks  and  collects  some 
useless  information,  in  the  main  this  work  in  both  large  and  small  institu- 
tions is  done  in  an  indifferent  and  unsystematic  way.  .  .  .  There  is 
no  very  general  agreement  as  to  just  what  facts  a  well  conducted  college 
should  gather  concerning  its  students  and  in  what  way  these  can  be  most 
simply  recorded.  ...  In  many  colleges  the  simpler  forms  of  regis- 


REGISTRAR'S  OFFICE  181 

tration  and  filing  have  not  been  introduced,  and  much  labor  is  wasted 
in  caring  for  material  which,  under  modern  methods,  can  be  handled  in 
a  very  simple  and  effective  manner. 

"It  seems  clear  that  while  the  registration  office  and  the  registrar  ought 
not  to  be  burdened  with  unnecessary  details,  there  are  certain  facts  con- 
cerning all  matriculated  students  which  ought  to  be  kept  on  file  and 
accessible  to  any  inquirer  entitled  to  know  them.  It  goes  without  saying 
that  every  college  should  keep  in  a  simple  and  accessible  form  such  facts 
as  show  the  basis  upon  which  a  student  is  admitted  and  upon  which  he 
is  promoted.  ...  I  venture  to  suggest  that  colleges  which  have  been 
lacking  in  this  matter  can  profitably  examine  some  of  the  simple  and 
more  effective  forms  of  registration  in  use  in  many  colleges,  and  a  dis- 
tinct gain  in  uniformity  and  comparability  of  registration  statistics  could 
be  had  by  some  concert  of  action  among  registration  offices  as  to  the 
information  which  ought  to  be  kept  on  file  and  as  to  the  simplest  and 
easiest  way  of  doing  this." 

The  essentials  are  plain  enough,  and  it  is  far  better  to  keep  a 
minimum  clearly  and  effectively,  than  to  attempt  the  vagaries  that 
are  often  demanded  by  a  certain  sort  of  specialists  as  grist  for  their 
statistics  mills.  It  would  be  a  vast  gain  if  the  colleges  would  keep 
and  rightly  use  the  records  for  which  they  are  directly  responsible. 
They  may  pretermit  dubious  investigations  of  life-histories  from 
ancestry  and  birth  and  continued  beyond  graduation,  etc.  Facili- 
ties of  the  registrar's  office  might  be  put  at  the  disposal  of  some 
member  of  a  department  of  sociology  who  wished  to  conduct  such 
researches;  but  they  are  not  a  part  of  the  business  management 
for  which  the  faculty  is  responsible,  and  which  it  is  the  function  of 
the  registrar  to  discharge  under  the  faculty's  orders  and  regula- 
tions. 

I  believe  that  the  incongruous  functions  and  powers  often  com- 
mitted to  registrars  are  a  fruitful  cause  of  mismanagement.  In 
some  universities  the  registrar  is  a  sort  of  president's  factotum,  and 
is  delegated  to  perform  or  to  control  almost  anything  that  may 
come  into  the  head  of  a  president  who  regards  himself  as  "the 
whole  works"  and  is  readv  to  assume  instanter  direct  control  of 


182  ADVERTISING 

any  function  whatsoever.  Some  registrars  are  thus  commissioned 
by  presidents  to  make  the  schedule  of  lecture  hours,  to  take  entire 
charge  of  entrance  requirements,  etc.  The  things  mentioned  he- 
long  to  the  faculty's  jurisdiction,  and  in  the  procedures  referred  to 
the  faculty  is  either  wantonly  overridden,  or  seduced  into  volun- 
tary dereliction.  The  faculty  may  properly  instruct  the  registrar 
to  deal  with  entrance  requirements  in  so  far  as  they  are  a  matter 
of  plain  routine;  but  it  is  little  short  of  unseemly  to  commit  the 
professional  responsibility  and  discretion  involved  in  irregular 
admissions  to  a  clerical  office.  That  function  distinctly  belongs  to 
the  duties  of  the  faculty's  dean — its  chief  executive  officer.  In  the 
University  of  Wisconsin  (three  years  ago,  and  probably  still)  the 
registrar  passes  on  all  admissions  and  his  decisions  are  not  subject 
to  revision  by  the  faculty.  It  is,  of  course,  possible  that  the  Wis- 
consin registrar  is  personally  competent  to  exercise  that  professional 
discretion ;  but,  if  so,  it  would  seem  wasteful  of  human  material  to 
use  him  mainly  as  a  record  keeper  of  enrollments  and  grade  marks. 
Only  exceptional  conditions  could  justify  such  confusions  of  normal 
functions.  In  general  the  registrar's  office  should  be  a  seat  of  cler- 
ical work,  extended  beyond  its  special  function  as  convenient,  but 
never  made  a  seat  of  administrative  authority  or  professorial  dis- 
cretion. 

Advertising 

Any  candid  survey  of  the  business  management  of  colleges  and 
universities  must  consider  the  methods  of  advertising  that  have 
been  developed  in  recent  years  to  such  large  proportions  and  im- 
moral propensities.  A  university's  bureau  of  publicity  is,  and 
ought  to  be,  an  immediate  adjunct  to  the  president's  office.  The 
policies  and  conduct  of  the  institution's  direct  appeals  to  the  pub- 
lic are  rightly  placed  under  the  hand  of  its  chief  executive  officer. 
Nothing  exposes  to  outside  observers  more  intimately  and  clearly 
the  real  spirit  and  standards  of  the  administration,  than  the  style 
and  matter  of  its  deliberately  framed  and  paid-for  advertising. 


ADVERTISING  183 

It  is  evident  that  in  addition  to  catalogs  and  bulletins  of  infor- 
mation and  financial  reports,  there  is  also  a  need  of  worthy  publi- 
cations maintained  by  the  university  or  its  alumni,  and  of  occasional 
contributions  to  the  public  press  by  responsible  writers.  After  ex- 
plaining the  need  and  value  of  such  means  for  securing  public 
knowledge  of  a  university's  activities  and  achievements,  President 
Eliot  expresses  the  opinion:  "It  is  extremely  doubtful  if  any  of 
the  ordinary  forms  of  advertising  do  a  university  any  good."  The 
vices  of  college  advertising  inhere  in  competitive  advertising, 
whether  injected  into  proper  publications,  or  issued  as  naked  bids 
for  students. 

It  is  not  possible  to  ascertain  from  financial  reports  the  amount 
of  money  spent  on  advertising.  Distinctive  advertising  for  the 
purpose  of  luring  students  is  not  distinguished  from  printing  of 
every  sort  and  necessary  public  notices  of  examination  dates,  etc. 
The  founder  of  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University  directed  that 
no  part  of  his  gift  should  be  spent  in  advertising.  The  restric- 
tion was  not  improperly  imposed  on  that  definite  source  of  the  insti- 
tion's  income,  and  it  may  exert  a  good  moral  influence;  but  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  attempt  to  prohibit  advertising  by  any  law 
or  sweeping  rule.  Arbitrary  prohibition  would  be  inherently  de- 
moralizing and  would  be  circumvented.  There  are  better  and  more 
effective  incentives  to  right  conduct.  Forcible  restraint  may  hold 
wretches  in  order,  but  cannot  lead  men  to  virtue. 

The  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching  has  made 
extensive  and  prolonged  study  of  college  advertising.  Its  annual 
reports  for  1909  and  1912  devote  chapters  to  the  subject.  In  the 
present  study  we  need  pay  no  attention  to  the  excesses  of  the 
thoroughly  fraudulent  institutions  that  live  by  advertising,  prom- 
ising every  advantage  of  university  education  with  no  semblance  of 
means  to  fulfill  the  promise.  Some  of  these  have  recently  been 
closed  by  the  imprisonment  of  their  presidents,  following  prosecu- 
tions by  the  federal  postal  authorities.  We  shall  consider  only  repu- 


184  ADVERTISING 

table  institutions ;  but  it  should  be  understood  that  his  historical  in- 
vestigations led  President  Pritchett  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
weaker  and  younger  took  their  advertising  cue  from  the  older  and 
stronger  institutions.  Some  conception  of  the  practice  and  conse- 
quences of  competitive  advertising  by  colleges,  and  universities  may 
be  formed  from  the  following  very  temperate  discussion  condensed 
from  the  two  reports  mentioned  above : 

"One  of  the  factors  of  American  college  and  university  management  of 

rapid   growth   in  recent  years   is  the   practice  of  systematic   advertising. 

.  .  .  The  practice  has  assumed  proportions  which  no  one  could  have 
anticipated.  .  .  . 

"Paid  advertising  by  old  and  famous  institutions  of  higher  learning  is 
t- 
apparently  distinctively  an  American  practice.     One  can  scarcely  imagine 

Balliol  or  Pembroke  or  the  Universities  of  Berlin  or  Paris  sending  out 
the  sort  of  advertising  literature  which  Harvard  and  Chicago  dis- 
tribute. .  .  . 

"Harvard  College  appears  to  have  led  in  this  matter,  as  in  many  others. 
The  first  advertisement  of  Harvard  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  was  printed 
in  February,  1870,  and  at  that  time  occasioned  much  discussion  as  being 
a  departure  from  old-time  ideals  of  academic  dignity.  Since  that  day  the 
habit  has  spread,  the  smaller  and  younger  colleges  taking  their  cue  from 
the  older  institutions  and  painting  the  advantages  of  the  college  training 
in  colors  more  and  more  glowing.  A  college  which  cannot  equal  Harvard's 
equipment  finds  it  quite  possible  to  outdo  the  university  in  its  advertise- 
ments. .  .  . 

"One  of  the  most  common  educational  advertisements  to  catch  the  eye 
is  that  of  the  University  of  Chicago  in  connection  with  its  correspondence 
department,  which  reads  as  follows:  'Home  Study.  The  University  of 
Chicago  offers  Correspondence  Courses  in  over  30  subjects  for  Teachers, 
Writers,  Social  Workers,  Ministers,  Physicians,  Bankers,  and  students 
desiring  to  finish  either  a  High  School  or  College  course.  One-half  the 
work  for  a  Bachelor's  degree  may  thus  be  done.  The  University  of 
Chicago,  Div.  W.,  Chicago,  111.'  The  suggestion  contained  in  the  last  two 
lines  concerning  a  degree  earned  in  large  measure  by  correspondence  is 
rather  more  of  a  bid  for  candidates  for  degrees  than  is  made  by  other 
institutions  of  corresponding  dignity  and  scholarly  standing.  .  .  . 


ADVERTISING  185 

"In  the  present  crowded  condition  of  the  state  universities  of  the  central 
west  one  reads  with  some  degree  of  wonder  in  a  single  edition  of  a  New 
York  paper  formal  advertisements  of  the  Universities  of  Wisconsin,  Mich- 
igan, and  Illinois.  .  .  . 

"Even  a  superficial  examination  of  the  practice  of  advertising  shows 
that  it  has  consequences  of  no  mean  order  for  the  college  and  for  education, 

"One  of  these  has  just  been  alluded  to,  namely,  that  in  the  competition 
by  advertising  the  weakest  college  can  outshine  the  strongest  university. 
Thus,  the  Valparaiso  University,  which  has  recently  begun  to  put  adveri 
tisements  into  the  magazines,  having  apparently  been  corrupted  by  the 
example  of  the  older  institutions,  has  a  more  alluring  advertisement  than 
some  of  the  greatest  universities.  It  boasts  a  larger  enrollment  and  offers 
to  meet  the  student  at  any  stage  of  his  education  for  less  money  than  any 
other  bidder.  And  yet  this  institution,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it 
has  given  educational  help  to  many  who  otherwise  might  never  have  got 
outside  their  home  facilities,  is  not  a  university  at  all.  It  exists  on  the 
inequalities  of  our  present  educational  organization.  Unfortunately  it  is 
undertaking  to  do  many  things  which  it  can  only  do  badly;  but  in  the 
advertising  competition  it  has  every  advantage,  for  it  keeps  a  depart' 
ment  store.  .  .  . 

"Another  objection  to  formal  advertising  lies  in  the  tendency  to  em- 
phasize and  advertise  the  weakest  part  of  an  institution.  This  is  the 
natural  function  of  direct  advertising  whose  purpose  is  to  draw  students 
to  the  courses  which  are  not  full.  For  example,  after  the  Lawrence  Scien- 
tific School  changed  from  a  school  of  science  under  its  original  teachers 
to  a  distinctive  engineering  school,  it  remained  for  a  number  of  years  a 
weak  school,  but  during  all  this  period  it  was  the  most  advertised  part 
of  the  university.  When  one  sees  a  Harvard  advertisement  today  he  is 
not  likely  to  find  mentioned  in  it  the  strong  and  well  established  parts 
of  the  university,  but  the  newly  inaugurated  school  of  business  adminis- 
tration which  has  not  yet  found  itself,  but  which  attracts  possible  students 
with  the  inviting  claim  that  'training  is  specialized  to  prepare  for  the 
lines  of  commerce  and  manufacturing,'  an  advertisement  strongly  sug- 
gestive of  the  correspondence  schools. 

"University  publications  under  the  advertising  stimulus  tend  to  assume 
more  and  more  the  nature  of  advertising  reminders,  not  dignified  or 
scholarly  statements  of  the  work  and  resources  of  a  particular  institution. 
Let  any  alumnus  go  over  the  literature  he  has  received  in  the  last  year 


186  ADVERTISING 

from  his  alma  mater  and  see  how  much  of  it  brings  back  the  serious  and 
scholarly  side  of  university  life  and  how  much  of  it  belongs  to  the  side 
of  promotion. 

"Still  more  far-reaching  and  influential  is  the  advertising  habit  in 
affecting  the  organization  of  the  university  and  its  attitude  to  its  own 
alumni  and  to  the  put  c.  Most  advertising  is  indirect.  Representatives 
of  the  university  travel  over  the  country  and  meet  the  pupils  in  secondary 
schools.  University  professors  are  sent  on  long  journeys  to  meet  possible 
students.  The  alumni  are  organized  into  groups  which  in  large  measure 
drop  the  natural  and  desirable  social  relations  of  alumni  and  become  what 
are  known  in  the  west  as  'booster'  clubs. 

"Again,  an  employment  bureau  is  organized  and  the  student  is  urged 
to  come  to  a  given  university  on  the  ground  that  a  position  will  be  found 
for  him  upon  graduation.  .  .  . 

"The  question  of  advertising  comes  down  in  the  end  to  one  not  alone  of 
good  taste,  but  of  far-sighted  policy.  .  .  .  Most  institutions  have  taken 
it  up,  if  they  have  gone  into  it  at  all,  without  very  much  thought  of  the 
extent  to  which  it  may  be  carried,  and  often  in  response  to  the  solicitations 
of  advertising  agents.  It  is  when  one  comes  to  view  the  practice  at  large 
and  notes  the  effect  of  the  development  of  the  advertising  habit  in  the 
institutions  themselves  that  he  begins  to  have  doubts  as  to  its  wisdom. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  it  has  lured  into  the  colleges  many  men 
who  were  unfit.  .  .  .  Advertising  so  far  as  the  student  is  concerned 
has  been  almost  wholly  bad.  .  .  .  No  youth  seeking  a  college  educa- 
tion and  no  man  looking  toward  the  profession  of  law  or  of  medicine 
ought  to  allow  himself  to  be  influenced  in  any  measure  by  paid  advertise- 
ments. ...  To  select  the  college  or  the  medical  school  which  one 
proposes  to  attend  on  the  basis  of  paid  advertisements  is  like  selecting  a 
wife  through  a  correspondence  bureau.  .  .  . 

"On  the  whole  I  am  inclined  to  doubt  whether  any  advertising  of  a  true 
university  pays  in  the  large  sense  other  than  that  which  comes  from  the 
presence  of  great  scholars  and  teachers,  the  possession  of  adequate  equip- 
ment, and  the  attendance  of  a  homogeneous,  alert,  earnest  student  body. 
This  conviction  is  reflected  today  in  the  attitude  of  the  more  thoughtful 
and  far-sighted  university  presidents." 

Three  years  later  the  matter  is  taken  up  at  still  greater  length 
in  the  last  annual  report,  for  the  saddening  reason  that,  "observa- 


ADVERTISING  187 

tion  in  the  interval  seems  to  indicate  that  the  objectionable  use 
of  advertising  in  education  has  grown  steadily" : 

"To  state  in  a  few  words  what  is  the  right  function  of  advertising,  so 
far  as  education  is  concerned,  is  not  simple.  Thisi  is  evident  when  one 
considers  the  conception  of  the  term  as  currently  used,  that  is,  the  publi- 
cation in  the  printed  page,  by  the  authorities  of  ti  o  university,  of  informa- 
tion with  regard  to  it.  Such  a  definition  includes  in  advertising  such 
publications  as  the  annual  catalogue,  the  circulars  of  information  con- 
cerning work,  announcements  of  the  opening  and  closing  of  terms,  state- 
ments of  the  equipment  and  facilities  of  the  institution,  reports  of  its 
financial  condition,  and  all  other  publications  pertaining  to  its  work  and 
to  the  opportunities  that  it  offers  to  students.  Such  statements  appear 
partly  in  publications  issued  by  the  institution,  partly  in  magazines  and 
newspapers,  and  at  times,  in  articles  prepared  under  the  authority  of  the 
institution  and  furnished  to  newspapers. 

"It  is  clear  enough  that  there  is  a  legitimate  use  for  the  printed  an- 
nouncements of  a  university  and  of  the  work  that  the  institution  does. 
The  difficulty  comes  in  drawing  a  line  between  that  which  is  wise  and 
right  and  that  which  is  unwise  and  misleading. 

"A  few  principles  may,  I  think,  be  laid  down  which  should  govern  a 
college  or  university  in  dealing  with  this  matter.  An  institution  exercises 
a  moral  as  well  as  an  intellectual  power,  and  the  conditions  that  determine 
the  nature  of  its  use  of  advertising  are  founded  partly  upon  moral  con- 
siderations and  partly  upon  those  of  academic  good  taste. 

"The  first  of  these  considerations  I  believe  to  be  the  determination  that 
printed  matter  concerning  an  institution  of  learning  shall  be  given  out  only 
for  the  purpose  of  enabling  a  possible  inquirer  to  find  what  he  seeks,  never 
with  the  idea  of  attracting  students  in  the  competitive  sense. 

"Secondly,  in  stating  the  facilities  which  the  institution  offers,  every 
effort  should  be  made  to  be  clear,  brief,  and  accurate,  so  that  the  inquirer 
may  really  gain  from  the  printed  statement  some  conception  of  the  actual 
situation  described. 

"Finally,  in  announcing  the  facilities  which  the  college  offers,  the  claims 
put  forward  should  be  sincere,  honest,  and  modest.  Modesty  is  an  old- 
fashioned  virtue,  but  there  is  none  which  becomes  a  college  better,  or 
which  ought  more  truly  to  characterize  the  academic  spirit. 

"One   who  examines   with   care   the   publications   of   even   our   best  and 


188  ADVERTISING 

strongest  institutions  will  realize  that  these  elementary  conditions  are 
seldom  fulfilled. 

"For  example,  the  catalogues  and  other  printed  circulars  issued  by  the 
stronger  universities  are,  in  many  cases,  so  intricate  and  so  technically 
worded  that  the  general  reader  can  learn  little  from  them.  There  are 
very  few  catalogues  which  would  not  gain  enormously  in  clearness  and 
availability  by  the  mere  process  of  exclusion  and  condensation.  When,  for 
example,  catalogues  approach  the  two  and  one-half  pound  bulk  of  that 
of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  they  become  almost  impossible.  .  .  . 

"On  the  other  hand,  a  brief  yet  adequate  summary  of  the  equipment 
and  endowment,  of  the  income  and  expenditures,  such  as  has  been  recently 
included  in  their  catalogues  by  the  University  of  Virginia  and  the  Catholic 
University  of  America,  is  most  suggestive  information  for  the  parent  and 
the  student.  Such  statements  usually  appear  only  in  the  annual  report 
of  a  university,  if  at  all,  and  yet  there  is  scarcely  any  other  information 
which  is  more  generally  indicative  of  the  real  character  of  the  institution. 
If  the  more  pretentious  colleges  and  universities  which  announce  long 
assortments  of  courses  should  print  side  by  side  with  these  announcements 
the  financial  resources  upon  which  they  rely  to  carry  out  the  work  offered, 
few  would  be  deceived  by  their  exaggerated  claims.  Unfortunately,  the 
parent  or  the  boy  who  examines  the  high-sounding  and  attractive  courses 
offered  in  the  catalogues  seldom  inquires  as  to  the  actual  means  in  hand 
for  making  good  the  promises.  All  colleges  appear  equally  honest  to  him. 

"Perhaps  there  are  few  other  places  where  the  catalogues  of  all  Ameri- 
can and  Canadian  colleges  are  studied  more  systematically  than  in  the 
office  of  the  Foundation,  and  with  the  purpose  of  obtaining  information 
as  to  the  actual  work  offered.  It  is  through  this  experience  that  the 
Foundation  speaks  from  the  standpoint  of  one  using  the  catalogues  for 
the  ends  that  they  are  supposed  to  serve.  One  cannot  go  through  this 
work  without  considering  whether  the  primary  purpose  of  many  of  these 
publications  is  to  afford  correct  information.  Certainly  there  are  few 
catalogues  that  would  not  be  the  better  if  rewritten  from  this  point  of 
view.  Whose  need  is  the  publication  to  serve?  Once  this  is  consciously 
recognized,  clearness,  brevity,  and  accuracy  are  apt  to  follow.  .  .  . 

"An .  example  of  what  ought  to  be  shunned  may  be  found  in  a  recent 
circular  of  Reed  College,  at  Portland,  Oregon,  which  includes  in  its 
biographies  of  professors,  editorships  of  college  annuals,  class  votes  on 
popularity,  degrees  that  are  expected,  academic  biographies  of  professors' 


ADVERTISING  189 

wives,  the  number  of  their  children,  and,  finally,  portraits,  which  last 
are  ever  unsatisfactory  intellectual  documents.  All  of  this  savors  of  that 
form  of  professorial  self-advertising  which  punishes  itself  by  calling  forth 
not  admiration,  but  ridicule.  This  new  and  progressive  institution  might 
well  have  set  a  better  example.  .  .  . 

"A  fair  consideration  of  the  tendencies  now  evident  in  our  American 
colleges,  and  of  the  enormous  number  who  are  drawn  into  the  colleges 
without  preparation,  will  convince  any  candid  inquirer  that  advertising 
has  no  legitimate  use  today  in  education  in  the  United  States  beyond 
such  straightforward,  clear  statements  of  the  work  offered  as  I  have 
indicated.  Advertising  beyond  that  point  is  nearly  always  wrong,  and  in 
nearly  every  instance  does  harm.  Any  college  advertising  which  aims  to 
attract  students  to  an  institution  or  to  a  department  because  that  institu- 
tion or  department  desires  more  students,  is  almost  sure  to  be  harmful. 
College  advertising,  on  the  other  hand,  ought  to  endeavor  to  make  such 
an  honest  display  of  the  institution's  qualifications  as  will  aid  the  student 
in  a  wise  choice  of  the  department  or  the  institution  best  suited  to  meet 
his  needs.  The  unfair  side  of  such  advertising  is  clearly  shown  by  the 
almost  universal  tendency  to  advertise  the  newest  and  weakest  part  of  an 
institution.  A  fair  statement  of  an  institution's  equipment,  endowment, 
expenditure;  the  cost  to  the  student;  the  number,  training,  and  scholarly 
accomplishment  of  its  staff;  its  requirements  for  admission  and  grad- 
uation,— these  things  are  illuminating  and  helpful.  Anything  beyond  this 
aims  at  institutional  aggrandizement  rather  than  student  information. 

"Besides  these  direct  methods  of  advertising,  there  are  numerous  others 
which  are  indirect,  of  which  the  most  common  have  come  to  be  the  pub- 
licity bureau,  the  alumni  organization,  the  honorary  degree,  and  the  free 
scholarship. 

"To  deal  with  these  agencies  in  full  would  require  too  great  a  space 
and  go  beyond  the  purpose  of  this  statement,  which  has  for  its  object  not 
so  much  a  complete  account  of  the  various  methods  of  advertising  as  an 
endeavor  to  point  out  the  spirit  and  tendency  that  are  involved,  and  the 
necessity  for  the  honest  college  to  stand  fairly  toward  it. 

"The  publicity  bureau  may  be  helpful  or  harmful  according  to  the  spirit 
of  its  conduct.  An  honest,  interesting,  and  clear  account  of  work  done 
in  an  institution  can  do  only  good,  and  the  wider  its  circulation  the 
better.  On  the  other  hand,  a  publication  which  purports  to  be  scholarly 
can  be  made  as  sensational  as  the  most  advanced  yellow  journal  could 


190  ADVERTISING 

desire.  Discoveries  may  be  hinted  at  which  arouse  public  expectation. 
Ordinary  routine  work  may  be  described  so  as  to  appear  the  latest 
scientific  research.  A  mediocre  book  may  be  exploited  as  of  extraordinary 
merit.  The  entire  effect  and  value  of  such  an  agency  depends  upon  the 
spirit  in  which  it  is  conducted. 

"The  attitude  of  alumni  associations  toward  the  institution  with  which 
they  are  connected  may  be  characterized  in  the  same  way.  Such  asso- 
ciations may  become  most  helpful  and  stimulating  to  the  scholarly  and 
moral  life  of  the  college,  or  they  may  be  transformed,  and  unfortunately 
too  often  are  transformed  into  agencies  for  soliciting  students  and 
money.  .  .  . 

"The  conferring  of  honorary  degrees  may  be  justified  upon  many 
grounds,  so  long  as  these  degrees  are  conferred  with  discrimination  and 
justice,  as  they  are  in  many  of  our  institutions,  but  it  would  be  difficult 
to  understand  the  academic  ground  upon  which  some  of  the  large  and 
some  of  the  small  institutions  confer  these  supposed  honors.  .  .  . 

"The  use  of  fellowships  and  scholarships  as  a  bait  to  draw  students  is 
a  story  too  long  to  tell  in  a  single  paragraph.  It  is  known  of  all  college 
men,  but  the  public  does  not  realize  the  extent  to  which  this  trade  has 
gone,  for  in  many  institutions  it  has  become  little  better  than  a  means 
of  competition  with  neighbors.  While  in  most  cases  the  older  institu- 
tions have  been  more  careful  in  this  matter  in  their  undergraduate  depart- 
ments, the  distribution  of  fellowships  in  their  graduate  schools  has  gen- 
erally gone  on  merrily.  Without  these  bids,  very  many  graduate  schools 
would  be  entirely  bereft  of  students.  Every  institution  should  state,  in 
its  financial  report,  the  exact  number  of  students  to  whom  it  gives  free 
tuition,  and  in  each  case  some  sort  of  accounting  should  be  made  to  the 
trustees  of  the  institution  as  to  the  reasons  for  such  action.  It  has  been 
almost  impossible  to  collect  accurate  statistics  showing  the  extent  to 
which  this  practice  has  grown,  but  any  examination  of  the  treasurer's 
report  of  most  institutions  will  show  a  large  discrepancy  between  the 
number  of  students  enrolled  and  the  receipts  from  tuition  which  naturally 
would  result  from  such  a  body.  No  practice  has  done  more  to  demoralize 
educational  conditions  than  this  competitive  use  of  free  scholarships,  or 
of  those  partially  free.  It  is  one  of  the  forms  of  competition  which  has 
done  most  to  bring  students,  who  should  have  remained  in  their  high 
schools,  into  the  weaker  colleges,  and  to  weaken  the  intellectual  ten- 
dencies of  even  the  better  colleges  by  the  presence  of  more  students  than 
they  can  deal  with  wisely.  The  man  who  is  seeking  a  good  college  for  his 


ADVERTISING  191 

son  or  his  daughter  should  distrust  the  college  which  solicits  his  child's 
attendance,  and  most  of  all  when  the  inducement  takes  the  form  of  a 
bonus  such  as  a  free  or  partially  free  scholarship.  ...  A  scholar- 
ship supported  by  endowment  and  conferred  on  right  grounds  may  be  a 
good  thing  for  your  son  (though  even  here  there  are  dangers),  but  a 
scholarship  tendered  by  a  college  in  order  to  get  your  son's  attendance 
is  of  the  same  nature  as  a  rebate  at  your  grocery  store, — it  is  an  imposi- 
tion on  those  who  pay  in  full. 

"Those  who  have  been  most  successful  in  the  use  of  advertising  methods 
in  education  are  wont  to  reply  to  such  criticism  by  pointing  to  their 
results.  In  the  minds  of  most  persons  the  bringing  together  of  three 
thousand  students — however  immature  and  ill-taught — is  an  answer  to 
all  arguments.  This  is  success.  It  is  exactly  the  same  success  that  the 
patent  medicine  advertiser  achieves  when  through  advertising  methods  he 
educates  a  whole  region  to  buy  and  drink  his  nostrum.  When  his  con- 
stituency has  grown  to  many  thousands  he  has  achieved  success  and  the 
end  justifies  the  means.  The  process  by  which  some  of  our  largest  col- 
leges have  been  built  up  is  very  like  that. 

"The  answer  to  the  advocacy  of  the  patent  medicine  process  of  adver- 
tising in  education  is  not  entirely  simple;  not  only  because  the  slow 
process  of  sincerity  and  good  taste  is  less  often  appreciated,  but  also 
because  in  all  educational  upbuilding,  faith  is  a  necessary  factor.  If  a 
college  never  took  a  step  till  the  financial  outcome  were  absolutely  secure, 
our  progress  would  be  slow  indeed.  It  still  remains  true,  however,  that 
in  education  there  is  every  reason  why  faith  and  devotion  should  join 
hands  with  sincerity  and  honesty  rather  than  with  pretense  and  super- 
ficiality. After  all,  is  not  this  question  of  growing  less  rapidly  and 
more  soundly  the  question  which  faces  our  democracy  in  all  the 
fields  of  endeavor — industry,  education,  politics?  .  .  .  Is  it  a 
success  educationally  when,  by  such  methods  as  have  been  employed,  three 
thousand  immature  youths  are  gathered  into  one  institution  that  calls 
itself  a  university?  Does  not  this  process  foster  just  those  national  ten- 
dencies which  the  university  is  meant  to  counteract,  not  to  quicken?  I  do 
not  think  one  can  set  out  to  answer  these  questions  fairly  without  coming 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  university  and  the  college  have  lost  intellectually 
and  morally  in  proportion  as  they  have  given  themselves  up  to  the  adver- 
tising) spirit,  and  that  in  the  process  a  false  ideal  has  been  set  up  as  to 
what  constitutes  educational  success.  Whatever  may  have  been  true 
thirty  years  ago,  it  is  clear  that  today  we  need  not  more  colleges,  but 


192  ADVERTISING 

fewer  colleges,  not  more  students,  but  better  prepared  students,  and  that 
the  opportunity  both  of  the  college  and  of  the  university  to  contribute  to 
national  progress  lies  not  in  bigness,  but  in  greater  simplicity  and  thor- 
oughness; not  in  advertising,  but  in  modest  performance.  Advertising  in 
education  is  not  so  much  a  disease  as  a  symptom. 

"In  a  word,  competitive  advertising  clearly  has  no  place  in  education. 
Independent  advertising  has  its  place  only  when  it  is  informational  and 
thoroughly  honest.  Co-operative  advertising  should  not  be  too  fine  a 
thing  to  hope  for.  We  may  yet  see  a  group  of  our  best  universities  issue 
in  co-operation  a  comparative  statement  of  their  offerings.  It  would  be 
gratifying  if  the  Association  of  American  Universities  and  the  National 
Association  of  State  Universities  should  unite  their  efforts  toward  some 
such  end.  The  matter  was  aptly  put  by  the  principal  of  McGill  University 
in  an  address  on  'Inter-University  Arrangements  for  Post-Graduate  and 
Research  Students,'  at  a  recent  Conference  of  British  Universities  in 
London:  'There  is  a  growing  conviction  that  competition  in  post-graduate 
work  is  at  present  unduly  expensive,  sacrifices  the  student,  and  hinders 
scholarship  in  order  to  further  personal,  institutional,  and  regional  emula- 
tion. When  our  graduate  students  have  some  accredited  method  of  learn- 
ing that  if  they  want  to  study  a  certain  subject  they  will  find  that  sub- 
ject best  taught  in  a  certain  university,  we  shall  be  in  much  better  and 
more  highly  organized  condition  than  at  present.  The  problem  is  not  free 
from  difficulties,  but  it  will  be  found  as  time  goes  on  that  increased 
co-operation  shows  the  direction  in  which  a  solution  ought  to  be  sought.' 

"While  it  may  not  be  easy  in  the  conditions  which  surround  our  edu- 
cational institutions  at  this  day  to  indicate  with  exactness  what  the 
limitations  are  which  a  conscientious  and  scholarly  college  should  impose 
in  its  advertising,  it  is  possible  to  point  out  some  of  the  things  which 
clearly  ought  not  to  be  done.  I  venture,  therefore,  to  refer  to  a  few 
directions  in  which  it  seems  clear  that  the  advertising  spirit  has  got  the 
tipper  hand  of  the  scholarly  ideal. 

"It  is  a  common  practice,  particularly  among  the  smaller  institutions, 
to  advertise  themselves  as  the  equals  of  the  best.  .  .  . 

"An  even  more  common  practice  is  the  reckless  use  of  superlatives. 
.  .  .  Such  a  competition  in  the  irresponsible  use  of  language  defeats 
its  own  end.  .  .  .  The  school  advertising  pages  of  our  magazines  are 
constantly  enveloped  in  an  iridescent  spray  of  such  adjectives.  Each 
institution  has  a  location  that  is  either  magnificent,  glorious,  unrivaled, 
or  ideal;  its  equipment  is  thoroughly  or  completely  modern,  remarkable, 


ADVERTISING  193 

excellent,  or  superb;  its  faculty  is  composed  of  experienced,  cultured, 
superior,  distinguished,  leading,  and  inspiring  teachers.  The  advantages 
and  opportunities  of  each  institution  are  unusual,  exceptional,  rare,  unsur- 
passed, matchless,  and  pre-eminent.  Each  possesses  either  the  finest  col- 
lege spirit  with  the  highest  ideals,  or  a  delightful,  dominant,  romantic 
tone  of  culture.  In  short,  every  institution  has  every  college  activity. 
They  are  all  unsurpassed,  unique,  pre-eminent,  and  ideal. 

"What  is  the  effect  of  all  this  upon  the  reader?  The  well-informed 
man  sighs  and  turns  away.  The  earnest  inquirer  endures  the  economic 
waste  of  the  cost  of  verification  added  to  the  cost  of  competition.  The 
merely  credulous  reader,  and  his  name  is  legion,  eagerly  sends  ill-prepared 
students  to  institutions  that  are  educationally  futile,  or  worse,  and  the 
intellectual  end  of  these  students  is  oftentimes  full  of  bitterness.  For  so 
far  as  the  student  is  concerned,  such  advertising  is  almost  wholly  bad,  and 
so  long  as  people  trust  it,  the  weakest  institutions  can  outshine  the 

• 

strongest,  and  the  unworthy  will  continue  to  live  by  advertising. 

"It  is  simple  fairness  to  the  public  that  the  nature  of  this  sort  of 
bidding  should  be  brought  into  the  light.  This  is  the  only  reason  for 
describing  here  the  most  ingeniously  offensive  piece  of  college  advertising 
that  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  meet.  This  is  a  series  of  weekly  full-page 
notices  which  appeared  in  the  United  Presbyterian,  published  at  Pitts- 
burgh, from  October  12  to  December  14,  1911,  inclusive,  as  part  of  a 
'campaign'  to  collect  $250,000  for  [a  certain  college  in  Ohio].  ...  It 
is  astonishing  that  advertisements  bearing  such  evident  marks  of  insin- 
cerity and  vulgarity  should  be  admitted  to  the  columns  of  a  reputable 
religious  journal.  .  .  . 

"There  are  two  phases  of  the  question  which  I  venture  to  commend  to 
the  consideration  of  the  colleges  themselves. 

"The  first  is  the  disappointment  of  the  boy  who  has  been  deceived. 
It  would  astonish  many  to  know  how  many  men  there  are  in  the  United 
States  today  who  feel  bitterly  toward  institutions  which  tempted  them 
into  their  walls  on  reports  which  later  have  been  discovered  to  be  untruth- 
ful. This  resentment  will  in  future  years  become  stronger.  .  .  . 

"Finally  the  present  situation  in  American  education  in  this  matter 
imposes  special  obligations  upon  the  conscientious  institutions.  Just  so 
long  as  the  old  and  well-established  college  lends  itself  to  a  sensational 
and  misleading  exploitation  of  its  own  advantages,  just  so  long  as  it 
departs  from  the  fair  standards  of  academic  sincerity  and  good  taste,  it 
furnishes  example  and  inspiration  for  the  reckless  and  irresponsible  col- 


194  ADVERTISING 

lege  to  go  far  beyond  it,  and  it  makes  an  excuse  which  the  commercial 
vendor  of  professional  education  is  only  too  eager  to  seize.  There  is  here 
for  the  honest  college  a  duty  to  the  public  which  touches  its  moral  leader- 
ship very  closely.  It  is  part  of  such  leadership  to  make  clear  to  individual 
citizens  the  limitations  which  go  with  freedom  no  less  than  the  privileges 
and  the  rights  of  freedom.  It  does  this  in  the  only  effective  way  when 
it  conducts  its  own  business  not  only  within  the  law,  but  also  within  the 
limits  of  academic  sincerity,  honesty,  and  good  taste." 

I  have  already  remarked  that  nothing  exposes  to  outside  observers 
more  intimately  and  clearly  the  real  spirit  and  standards  of  the 
administrative  head  of  a  university,  and  of  his  chosen  lieutenants  in 
such  business,  than  the  style  and  manner  of  its  deliberately  framed 
and  paid  for  advertising.  And  it  may  be  added  that  no  revelation  in 
such  pronouncements  is  more  significant  than  the  tone  and  degree 
in  which  protestations*  about  "democracy"  are  dragged  into  incon- 
gruous connections.  Of  course,  a  genuine  and  sympathetic  under- 
standing of  democracy  in  a  legitimate  sense,  may  be  an  import- 
ant characteristic  of  a  university;  but  manners,  intelligence,  and 
sincerity  are  all  sinisterly  implicated  if  scurrying  and  sputtering 
avowals  provoke  the  retort  "Methinks  thou  dost  protest  too  much." 
A  curious  document  could  be  made  by  collating  from  catalogs  and 
circulars,  issued  by  state  universities,  quotations  in  which  the  words 


*Dr.  Edwin  E.  Slosson,  in  his  book  "Great  American  Universities" 
(1910),  alludes  in  two  passages  to  the  manner  and  habit  of  proclaiming 
its  "democracy"  met  with  by  him  at  every  university  he  visited.  At  one 
point  he  checks  himself  at  an  inadvertent  tendency  to  describe  "a  notice- 
able atmosphere  of  informality  and  congeniality  about  the  place,"  as  an 
atmosphere  of  "democracy," — because  in  view  of  university  usage  the  word 
would  have  no  meaning.  "Every  university,"  he  says,  "boasts  the  purest 
brand."  .  .  .  "When  I  started  out  on  my  quizzing  tour,  I  had  at  the 
head  of  the  list  of  questions  which  I  proposed  to  ask,  'Does  the  spirit  of 
democracy  prevail  in  this  University?'  But  I  soon  dropped  that  question 
as  fruitless,  because  it  was  answered  everywhere  before  I  asked  it,  and 
always  in  the  same  way.  There  were  two  things  about  which  each  univer- 
sity visited  agreed  .  .  .  the  purity  of  their  democracy  and  the  beauty 
of  their  campus.  In  admitting  deficiencies  in  other  respects  they  were 
usually  frank  enough  .  .  .  but  on  these  two  they  would  acknowledge 
no  superiors." 


ADVEETISING  195 

"democracy"  and  "democratic"  occur  in  uses  either  logically  absurd 
or  grammatically  incorrect.  An  appendix  might  deal  with  igno- 
rant uses  of  "citizenship."  If  the  more  substantive  assertions 
about  courses  of  study  and  equipment  approach  the  level  of  false 
labels  on  food  products  or  fraudulent  claims  for  patent  medicines, 
diatribes  from  the  same  sources  against  the  latter  will  be  as 
unavailing  as  inconsistent.  It  is  an  evil  pass  when  a  university 
forgets  that  there  yet  remains  a  goodly  portion  of  the  "people" 
who  appreciate  sincerity  and  decorum  and  are  still  conversant  with 
the  English  language. 


IV.     THE  EXECUTIVE  OFFICER 

Many  of  the  vexed  questions  concerning  the  place  and  power  and 
functions  of  the  president  of  an  American  university  have  been 
discussed  in  preceding  cha.pters  especially  in  the  latter  sections 
of  the  chapter  treating  of  the  governing  (i.  e.,  legislative)  board. 
With  such  a  board  an  executive  officer  is  a  necessity,  unless  the 
most  fundamental  principle  of  organization  is  to  be  violated — 
bodies  should  legislate,  individuals  execute.  The  chief  organic 
disorder,  which  has  led  some  to  wish  to  abolish  the  presidential 
office,  has  inhered  in  a  maladjustment  of  the  proper  relation  be- 
tween the  board  of  regents  and  the  faculty.  The  main  troubles 
with  and  of  the  board's  executive  officer  have  been  natural  conse- 
quences of  that  disorganizing  maladjustment.  The  needed  read- 
justment of  that  fundamental  relation  has  been  discussed  at  length, 
and  very  practicable  ordinances  have  been  proposed  which  would 

'  '     ^     ""pc   -  !    vfjj?! 

accomplish  it  in  a  simple  yet  effective  way.  I  have  ever  pointuf 
out,  however,  that  the  good  organization  would  only  make  good 
administration  more  natural  and  easier,  and  that  a  right  spirit  and 
true  enlightment  in  individuals  would  correct  direct  administra- 
tive abuses,  whatever  the  form  of  organization.  President  Schur- 
man,  while  recommending  organic  arrangements  for  faculty  parti- 
cipation in  the  government  of  the  university  (because  a  bad  organ- 
ization will  in  the  long  run  lead  to  the  survival  of  bad  or  weak 
individuals),  reminded  that  it  was  possible  to  accomplish  the  end 
in  view  "even  without  institutional  reorganization" : 

"Respect  for  personality,  the  spirit  of  brotherhood,  devotion  to 
scholarship  and  science,  and  zealous  cooperation  will  ensure  har- 
mony, efficiency,  and  progress  even  under  the  present  form  of 
university  organization  and  administration.  ...  If  stress  is  laid 
on  duty  and  service  and  not  on  rights  and  prerogatives,  if  the 
university  is  conceived  not  as  a  monarchy  or  aristocracy  or  'mob- 


THE   EXECUTIVE    OFFICER  197 

ocracy'  but  as  a  genuine  brotherhood  in  which  the  president  is 
merely  the  first  servant  of  the  institution,  there  would  seem  to 
be  little  difficulty,  given  a  reasonable  amount  of  tact  and  forbear- 
ance, of  administering  the  American  university  as  at  present  organ- 
ized to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties.  One  danger  indeed  lurks  in 
the  disposition  of  some  presidents  to  identify  themselves  with  the 
board  of  trustees,  to  adopt  an  exclusively  administrative  attitude, 
to  become  merely  men  of  business  and  men  of  affairs,  and  to  lose 
touch  with  the  work  and  sympathy  with  the  aims  and  ideals  of  the 
faculty,  which,  of  course,  constitute  the  supreme  object  of  the  insti- 
tution. If  by  any  kind  of  reorganization  this  danger  can  be 
averted,  the  reorganization  should  be  cordially  welcomed.  A 
university  whose  president  does  not  embody  and  faithfully  inter- 
pret the  spirit  of  the  scholars  and  scientists  who  essentially  con- 
stitute the  institution,  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  without  a  head. 
It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  any  kind  of  organization  will 
save  our  universities  from  occasional  disasters  of  this  sort.  The 
one  remedy  is  cultivation  by  the  faculty  of  a  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  welfare  and  advancement  of  the  institution  and  a  readiness 
to  advise  on  all  matters  directly  or  indirectly  connected  with  the 
essential  functions  of  the  university  of  which  they  are  the  con- 
stituted organs  and  guardians."* 

We  may  confidently  assume  that  a  university  needs  not  merely  a 
head  but  a  permanent  head,  in  order  to  secure  good  work,  needed 
cooperation,  and  attainable  progress.  "We  may.  therefore,  devote 
all  critical  thought  to  forming  the  best  conception  of  the  president's 
office  and  to  discovering  the  dangers  against  which  he  may  guard  or 
be  guarded.  In  so  far  as  formal  organization  can  safeguard  the 
president  and  the  institution  from  administrative  abuses,  I  have 
proposed  and  expounded  (pages  125-137)  what  seems  to  me  the 
needed  arrangements. 

*Some  of  President  Schurman's  suggestions  about  such  voluntary  atti- 
tudes, which  more  especially  concern  the  faculty,  are  given  in  the  next 
ehapter. 


198  CONCEPTION    OF   THE    PRESIDENTIAL   OFFICE 

Full  Conception  of  the  Presidential  Office 

In  the  first  place,  it  should  be  clearly  conceived  that  the  presr 
dent  has  pome  legitimate  and  responsible  relation  to  every  sphere 
and  part  of  the  institution  and  to  every  person  connected  with  it. 
It  ought  to  be  equally  clear  that  his  proper  relation  can  very  sel- 
dom, if  ever,  be  dictatorial  control.  A  correct  general  statement 
of  the  elements  of  a  proper  conception  is  given  by  President  Schur- 
man:  "This  head,  while  of  course  he  need  not  control,  must  par- 
ticipate in  all  phases  of  the  life  and  activity  of  the  university,  not 
only  because  the  university  as  a  whole  is  entitled  to  his  service 
but  also  in  order  that  he  may  have  the  knowledge  and  experience 
qualifying  him  to  be  a  faithful  exponent  and  representative  of  the 
institution  both  in  the  academic  community  and  in  the  larger  world 
bevond."  There  should  never  bo  any  question  whether  the  presi- 
dent ought  to  concern  himself  with  the  state  or  activities  of  any 
part  of  the  institution.  He  should  know,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  state  and  understand  the  interests  and  wants  of  every  part.  A 
proper  functional  organization  would  leave  him  with  all  the 
authority  or  influence  (as  the  case  might  be)  belonging  to  his 
proper  responsibility,  without  interfering  with  the  responsibility 
and  corresponding  authority  of  any  other  person. 

"The  conception  of  a  president  as  an  autocrat  on  the  bridge  is  an 
error,"  said  President  Alderman  in  an  address  on  assuming  the 
duties  of  President  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  "Between 
the  president  and  faculty,"  he  continued,  "a  loval,  hearty,  helpful 
relation  should  exist.  If  he  depends  on  himself  alone  he  will  do 
but  little  and  that  little  not  very  well.  His  opinions  must  gain 
their  weight  from  their  wisdom  rather  than  from  their  source.  His 
truest  strength  lies  in  the  power  to  divine  the  value  of  others  rather 
than  in  any  power  of  his  own  of  action  or  of  speech.  For  him 
there  must  be  the  open  mind,  the  sympathetic  spirit,  the  patient 
temper,  the  sleepless  eye;  and  his  power  should  be  commensurate 
with  his  responsibility."  These  are  magnanimous  words.  No  at- 


CONCEPTION    OF   THE    PRESIDENTIAL    OFFICE  199 

tentive  reader  will  misunderstand  the  nature  of  the  "power"  or 
of  the  "responsibility/'  as  conceived  by  President  Alderman;  but, 
as  additional  light  upon  his  mind  and  character  for  those  who 
do  not  know  him  personally,  I  cannot  forbear  quoting  what  I  re- 
gard as  a  superlative  tribute  to  a  university  president.  The  testi- 
mony was  borne  by  Professor  William  Benjamin  Smith  of  The  Tu- 
lane  University  of  Alabama  after  President  Alderman's  departure 
from  Tulane  to  Virginia :  "His  relations  with  the  members  of  the 
faculty  were  open  and  friendly,  his  temper  generous  and  apprecia- 
tive; he  valued  zealous  support,  but  no  way  discouraged  conscien- 
tious opposition."  It  has  been  said  of  some  other  university  presi- 
dents that  they  endured  opposition  with  candor  or  with  charity; 
but  of  this  man  it  is  said,  he  no  way  discouraged  conscientious 
opposition.  No  stronger  or  more  crucial  evidence  of  true  greatness 
of  mind  and  character  could  be  given. 

What,  then,  is  the  nature  of  the  power  and  responsibility  which 
President  Alderman  says  should  be  commensurate?  The  presi- 
dent's opinions  "must  gain  their  weight  from  their  wisdom," 
says,  and  indicates  that  a  main  responsibility  is  to  "divine  the 
value  of  others."  The  president  is  also  responsible  for  "well-con- 
ceived  plans,"  he  states  in  the  same  context.  The  power  and  lib- 
erty to  carry  out  such  plans  rests  on  trust  and  confidence.  He  does 
not  mean  that  the  president  needs  legislative  power.  The  regents 
and  the  faculty  should  legislate:  the  president  is  the  chief  adviser 
of  both  bodies,  and  the  executive  officer  of  the  former.  In  the 
matter  of  appointments  to  and  promotions  in  the  faculty  the 
president's  responsibility  should  be  absolute,  and  therefore  his 
nominations  should  always  be  confirmed  by  the  governing  board; 
but  even  here,  as  has  been  explained,  orderly  consultation  with 
a  council  representing  the  faculty  and  the  report  to  the  board  of 
regents  and  to  the  faculty  of  that  council's  concurrence  or  difference 
of  opinion,  is  the  faculty's  right  and  the  president's  best  safe- 
guard against  mistakes  and  misunderstandings. 


200  CONCEPTION    OF    THE   PRESIDENTIAL    OFFICE 

"His  power  should  be  commensurate  with  his  responsibility,"  is  a 
valid  principle  always  and  everywhere  for  every  one  commissioned 
to  perform  discretionary  acts.     It  is  as  true  for  the  professor  ae 
for  the  president.     Of  course,  the  terms  of  the  proposition  are 
convertible — his  responsibility  should  be  commensurate  with  his 
power.     Nothing  could  be  more  foolishly  rash  than  to  give  power 
without  imposing  commensurate  responsibility;  and  nothing  could 
J  be  more  unjustly  impractical  than  to  impose  responsibility  with- 
out giving  commensurate  power.     Yet,  strange  to  say,  each  of 
these  mistakes  is  made  by  many  governing  boards  and  administra- 
tive officers.     Boards  of  school  trustees  often  impose  responsibility 
upon    school    superintendents    and    withhold    the    commensurate 
power,  and  some  university  presidents  seem  disposed  to  treat  fac- 
ulties (both  corporately  and  in  their  individual  members)  in  the 
same  way.     University  regencies,   also,   have  commonly  usurped 
the  proper  authority  of  faculties   (a  mistake  which  we  have  con- 
sidered at  length),  and  some  such  boards  have  rashly  assumed 
administrative  functions  that  had  been  or  should  be  committed  to 
presidents.     As  no  respectable  apologv  for  the  last  mentioned  folly 
is  ever  attempted,  it  need  only  be  mentioned  as  a  discountenanced 
affront  to  civilization.     University  regents  and  school  boards  of 
large  cities  more  characteristically  make  the  opposite  mistake — 
giving  power   to   administrative   officers   without  imposing   com- 
mensurate responsibility.     There  have  been  university  presidents 
and  city  school  superintendents,  in  the  United  States,  whose  known 
policy,  besides  being  arbitrary,  was  one  of  indirection,  who  by 
nature  and  by  design  dealt  faithlessly  with  all  parties,  misrep- 
resenting positively  and  negatively,  by  distortion  and  by  suppres- 
sion to  the  public,  to  the  faculty  or  teachers,  and  to  the  governing 
boards.     Those  in  supreme  authority  have  known  the  facts  in  a 
general  way,  yet  such  officers  have  held  practically  irresponsible 
power  until  removed  for  some  extraneous  cause,  not  unrelated 
probably  but  incidental,  and  after  indefinitely  prolonged  admin- 


CONCEPTION    OF   THE   PRESIDENTIAL   OFFICE  201 

istrations.  How  would  it  be  possible  for  governing  boards  to  make 
such  a  mistake  if  they  understood  that  an  organism  cannot  be 
successfully  administered  without  conserving  its  proper  organiza- 
tion? 

Professor  Joseph  Jastrow  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  in  an 
address  to  the  Xational  Conference  of  College  and  University 
Trustees,  has  described  an  illustrative  instance: 

"A  member  of  a  faculty  propounded  to  me  the  attitude  of  its  president 
as  a  psychological  problem.  I  was  unable  to  give  any  enlightenment, 
but  this  is  the  enlightenment  that  I  received, — the  result  of  a  careful 
inductive  study.  ( 1 )  Whenever  President  X  announced  to  his  surprised 
faculty  that  the  board  had  adopted  such  and  such  a  measure,  it  proved 
to  mean  that  the  president  had  proposed  the  measure  to  the  wholly  inno- 
cent board,  and  that  it  was  a  measure  that  the  faculty,  were  it  given  a 
chance,  would  have  cordially  opposed.  (2)  When  a  measure  was  'up* 
before  the  faculty,  and  opposition  unexpectedly  developed,  an  announce- 
ment was  made  by  President  X  that  there  were  reasons,  which  unfortu- 
nately he  could  not  disclose,  that  really  made  the  measure  necessary — 
and  this  meant  that  if  not  approved  by  the  faculty,  the  board  would  take 
the  proposed  step  anyway.  There  were  two  other  types  of  situations  that 
entered  into  this  psychological  analysis;  but  they  are  too  individual  to 
make  it  proper  to  cite  them." 

It  would  be  a  word  "fitly  spoken"  if  the  next  great  inaugural  of  a 
university  president  were  made  the  occasion  of  an  indictment  so 
plain  and  forceful  that  the  governing  boards  of  educational  insti- 
tutions throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  would  be 
aroused  and  guided  to  apply  true  tests  of  administrative  skill  !o 
administrative  officers,  so  as  to  discover  whether  those  officers  ar& 
organizers  or  disorganizes  and  in  order  to  hold  them  to  a  responsi- 
bility commensurate  with  their  power.  In  the  address  referred 
to,  President  Alderman  gave  a  brave  hint  in  one  brief  sentence: 
"It  is  commonly  alleged  against  college  presidents  that  they  are 
liars."  He  most  justly  hastened  to  add,  "this  is  a  tolerablv  hasty 
generalization,  like  the  famous  one  of  the  Psalmist's."  No  special 
research  need  be  added  to  what  has  been  offered  in  the  present 


202  CONCEPTION    OF    THE   PRESIDENTIAL   OFFICE 

study  to  disclose  the  main  reasons  why  the  selective  processes  by 
which  college  presidents  ought  to  be  chosen  and  retained,  have 
not  operated  to  cause  them  to  be  commonly  included,  as  a  class, 
rather  among  the  understood  exceptions  to  the  psalmist's  generali- 
zation about  "all  men."  The  organic  fault  in  the  relation  between 
the  faculty  (as  a  body)  and  the  board  of  regents  has  placed  presi- 
dents in  an  almost  insuperably  difficult  position.  If  corruptible  he 
will  fall  into  duplicity  and  falsehood  (often  equivocated  as  "diplo- 
macy") ;  if  incorruptible,  the  same  organic  condition  brings  about 
so  many  misunderstandings  that  he  will  still  be  accused  of  dupli- 
city. 

Modern  university  presidents  have  had  thrust  upon  them  almost 
plenary  powers.  And  most  of  them  have  lacked  the  philosophical 
faculty  to  understand,  or  have  been  too  busy  doing  tangible  things 
by  the  shortest  cut,  too  engrossed  in  administration,  to  heed  the 
fault  in  organization  from  which  arise  their  worst  troubles  and 
which  leads  to  their  own  most  dangerous  errors.  "The  academic 
comment,"  says  Professor  Jastrow,  "that  occasionally  reaches  the 
college  president's  ears  to  the  effect  that  his  troubles  are  largely  of 
his  own  making,  is  intended  to  remind  him  that  he  encourages,  or 
complacently  accepts — does  not,  at  all  events,  protest  against  and 
strive  for  the  abolition  of — the  conditions  out  of  which  troubles 
naturally  grow." 

As  a  temporary  policy  suitable  to  an  acute  maladv,  it  might  be 
well  for  many  universities  and  for  all  that  universities  ought  to 
foster  and  serve,  if  for  several  years  they  built  no  new  buildings, 
added  no  new  departments,  and  devoted  all  available  wisdom  and 
effort  to  the  correction  of  internal  disorders,  to  the  securing  for  fac- 
ulty and  students  conditions  favorable  to  the  purposes  for  which 
students  and  professors  should  come  together,  and  to  the  forma- 
tion and  upholding  of  right  ideals  of  scholarship  and  science,  of 
conduct  and  life.  There  is,  indeed,  no  inherent  reason  why  the  one 
could  not  be  done  without  leaving  the  other  undone;  but  by  way 
of  emphasis  and  self-discipline  sometimes  abstinence  may  be 


CONCEPTION   OF   THE    PRESIDENTIAL   OFFICE  203 

a  more  suitable  regimen  than  temperance,  for  a  limited  period 
after  an  opposite  excess. 

Director  Davenport,  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  in  the  address 
quoted  in  a  previous  chapter,  digressed  from  his  main  themes 
to  show  the  great  injustice  to  the  president  in  "the  present  mania 
for  doing  everything  by  administrative  control" : 

"There  is  very  little  room  for,  or  need  of,  authority  in  the  daily  oper- 
ations of  the  University.  .  .  .  The  objects  to  be  gained  are  not  mass 
effects  to  be  achieved  by  onslaught  and  team  work  as  on  the  battle  ground 
and  the  football  field.  They  are  rather  a  complicated  series  of  achieve- 
ments to  be  won,  each  by  individual  effort  or  by  well  considered  co-oper- 
ation. And  if  the  state  universities  ever  assume  the  proportions  of  which 
they  are  capable,  or  if  they  ever  succeed  in  serving  the  public  to  their 
limits  it  will  be  only  through  the  power  of  individual  initiative  and  the 
stimulus  of  individual  responsibility,  acting  in  many  lines.  .  .  . 

"Nor  is  this  fatal  to  good  organization  or  strong,  even  invincible,  admin- 
istration. Every  man  holds  his  place  by  sufferance;  every  man  is  respon- 
sible for  results,  and  aside  from  all  this,  a  good  and  wise  president  will 
command  leadership  by  the  principle  of  the  universal  recognition  of  a 
superior  mind  without  demanding  it  through  the  exercise  of  authority. 
.  .  .  He  who  puts  his  hand  upon  the  estimates  and  the  personnel  and 
the  general  policies  will  control  the  situation,  so  far  as  authority  can 
control  it  for  good.  .  .  . 

"The  inevitable  results  of  the  present  mania  for  doing  everything  by, 
administrative  control  are  to  destroy  individual  initiative,  to  hamper  the 
work,  and  in  the  end  to  break  down  even  the  administration  itself,  and 
destroy  it  for  its  better  purposes.  .  .  . 

"The  department  details  are  both  logically  and  physically  outside  the 
president's  range  of  duties  or  responsibilities.  The  disposition  to  regard 
him  as  personally  and  officially  responsible  for  department  details  is  as 
cruel  to  him  as  it  is  detrimental  to  the  work.  It  can  accomplish  nothing 
useful.  It  is  setting  our  best  man  to  picking  chips  around  the  department 
workshops,  which  not  only  interferes  with  the  workmen,  but  consumes 
the  time  and  dissipates  the  energies  that  ought  to  be  devoted  to  larger 
purposes. 

"Nor  should  these  details  be  thrust  upon  him.  I  have  seen  taken  to 
the  president's  office,  over  and  over  again,  matters  of  such  common  routine 
and  trivial  detail  that,  should  I  permit  those  of  equal  consequence  to  come 


204  CONCEPTION    OF   THE   PRESIDENTIAL   OFFICE 

to  the  office  of  the  director,  I  should  be  worn  to  the  marrow,  and  if  I 
should  require  them  I  should  do  infinite  damage  by  blundering  decisions 
rendered  on  partial  knowledge  of  the  facts. 

"I  plead  for  a  decent  amount  of  leisure  on  the  part  of  the  president 
that  he  may  work  out  presidents'  problems.  What  are  they?  That  is  not 
my  theme,  but  in  order  to  protect  my  position  here  I  will  indicate  some  of 
them.  The  representation  of  the  university  before  the  public  through 
addresses,  and  through  the  wider  fields  of  activity  that  only  the  president 
can  occupy.  New  lines  of  work,  broader  policies,  a  larger  public  service, 
and  the  thousand  and  one  new  things  that  do  not  occur  to  the  men  I 
have  been  talking  about,  and  could  not  be  performed  by  them  if  they 
did.  .  .  .  There  is  a  service  outward  that  can  be  rendered  only  by 
the  president  acting  for  the  university  as  a  whole.  Besides  this  there  is 
a  service  that  is  inward  to  the  university  that  no  department,  no  college, 
and  no  officer  but  the  president  can  render.  It  is  imperative  that  some 
great  mind  be  free  to  work  out  from  time  to  time  new  conceptions  for 
the  upbuilding  of  the  university  as  conditions  change,  and  that  these 
energies  be  not  wasted  by  the  daily  drain  of  distracting  detail.  .  .  . 
What  cannot  a  single  man  in  the  right  place  do  at  certain  junctures  if  he 
is  big  enough  to  know  when  the  psychological  moment  has  arrived?  .  .  . 

"I  place  a  plea  for  presidential  leisure  and  a  protest  against  a  system 
that  ties  a  president  down  to  the  business  of  daily  directions.  A  well 
ordered  university  needs  a  president  for  other  purposes  than  the  details  of 
daily  operation." 

The  center,  and  nearly  the  circumference,  of  the  president's  inde- 
pendent authority  and  power  is  his  right,  inherent  in  the  nature  of 
his  responsibility,  that  only  on  the  president's  recommendation 
shall  any  one  be  elected  by  the  board  of  regents  to  any  university 
position.  This  is  his  indispensable  function, — indispensable  for 
the  welfare  of  the  institution.  It  can  be  properly  discharged  only 
si  in  freedom,  dignity,  and  security, — conditions  which  are  conserved, 
not.  infringed,  by  orderly  consultation  with  a  faculty  council  and 
open  report  of  concurrence  or  difference  of  opinion.*  If  the  exclu- 
sive power  of  nominating  all  appointees  is  assured,  no  other 
unquestionable  authority  is  needed  or  should  be  possessed  for  reg- 

*See  page  133. 


CONCEPTION   OF   THE   PRESIDENTIAL   OFFICE  205 

ular  purposes.  For  emergency  the  president  must  have  authority 
to  suspend  any  person  or  undertaking,  pending  the  next  session 
of  the  faculty  or  board  of  regents  according  to  the  jurisdiction  for 
the  matter  in  question.  Of  course,  he  has  independent  authority 
over  anything  duly  committed  to  his  immediate  charge,  for  in- 
stance a  publicity  bureau,  and  he  may  hold  specially  delegated 
authority  in  particular  matters,  as  expressly  commissioned  by 
some  ordinance  of  regents  or  faculty.  In  all  other  affairs  the 
president  should  exercise  influence  by  criticism,  advice,  and  counsel, 
but  should  not  issue  commands. 

Another  passage  from  Director  Davenport's  address  may  add  some 
suggestions  and  side  lights  for  readers  who  are  not  familiar  with 
the  inner  sides  of  university  life  and  work : 

"When  a  man  of  the  rank  and  consequence  of  a  head  of  a.  department 
approaches  the  office  of  his  administrative  superior  in  fear  or  in  trepida- 
tion instead  of  anticipated  pleasure  at  the  prospect  of  an  interesting  con- 
ference— I  say  when  this  thing  is  so,  then  something  is  wrong  at  the  upper 
office,  and  something  else  is  awfully  wrong  that  makes  such  conditions 
possible.  Yet  so  far  as  I  am  advised  this  is  the  inevitable  consequence 
of  the  so-called  'strong  administration,'  except  with  the  few  individuals 
so  conditioned  as  to  be  able  to  protect  themselves  or  their  interests,  and 
except  for  the  few  who  are  administrative  favorites.  I  ought  not  to  tell 
tales  out  of  school  in  this  assemblage,  yet  the  fact  is  notorious  that  no 
man  is  so  exposed  to  flattery,  no  man  so  frequently  cajoled  by  small  souls, 
no  man  so  thoroughly  easy  to  'work'  as  the  autocrat  at  the  head  of  what 
he  is  pleased  to  believe  a  strong  administration.  Of  absolute  loyalty  he 
knows  next  to  nothing. 

"Some  one  will  say,  'if  nobody  issues  directions,  how  shall  standards 
be  set  and  established?'  On  this  point  let  us  remember  that  standards 
which  live  long  are  not  born  suddenly  by  edict;  they  develop  out  of 
exigencies  and  experience,  and  after  a  while  they  become  traditional  and 
then  they  are  stronger  than  either  law  or  edict.  The  advocates  of  doing 
things  by  administration  do  not  seem  to  have  remembered  that  influence, 
tradition,  and  the  spirit  of  loyalty  are  infinitely  stronger  than  authority. 
They  seem  not  to  realize  that  there  is  a  form  of  organization  with  all 
the  appearance  of  strength,  but  which  breeds  only  weakness;  strong  and 


206  CONCEPTION    OF    THE   PRESIDENTIAL   OFFICE 

very  busy  at  the  center,  but  weak,  even  dead,  out  at  the  working  points 
where  it  ought  to  be  most  alive. 

"The  strongest  organization  is  the  one  that  is  not  always  on  dress 
parade,  and  does  not  always  remind  us  that  the  big  stick  is  close  at  hand. 
There  is  an  organization  that  is  scarcely  evident  except  when  occasion 
arises.  .  .  .  Such  an  organization  possesses  an  inherent  power,  un- 
measured and  unmeasurable.  It  will  leap  into  instant  service  almost  of 
itself  and  will  not  break  in  two  at  any  point,  however  severe  the  strain. 
The  power  of  such  an  organization  is  in  its  traditions,  and  the  loyalty 
of  its  members,  not  in  the  authority  of  its  head;  nor  does  it  depend 
altogether  upon  the  personality  of  its  members,  for  once  started  it  seems 
to  be  endowed  with  the  genius  of  immortality. 

"While  many  good  men  have  been  spoiled  and  their  work  ruined  by  too 
much  direction,  there  is  no  case  on  record  of  securing  the  service  of  a 
genius  out  of  a  stick  by  the  injection  of  any  sort  of  administrative  virus. 
Men  grow  and  develop  under  responsibility,  and  they  are  at  their  best 
under  a  feeling  that  a  great  public  trust  devolves  upon  them.  .  .  . 
Any  man  is  a  better  man  when  feeling  a  personal  sense  of  responsibility. 
If  there  is  anything  in  a  man  this  course  will  bring  it  out.  Therefore 
give  him  every  opportunity  with  a  free  hand  and  in  good  time  he  wilJ 
demonstrate  either  his  worth  or  his  worthlessness." 

In  many  discussions  of  this  question  of  presidential  authority., 
the  speakers  often  appear  to  misunderstand  each  other  and  them- 
selves from  sheer  vagueness  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  word.*  If 
they  always  kept  in  mind  that  "authority"  means  a  right  to  com- 
mand, many  antagonisms  would  be  avoided.  Evidently  the  presi- 
dent cannot  reasonably  command  the  board  of  regents  or  the  faculty 
to  legislate  in  accordance  with  his  opinions.  Evidently  he  should 
never  attempt  to  command  a  member  of  the  faculty  to  do  this  or 
that,  or  thus  and  so.  Every  attempt  to  control  authoritatively  in 
the  absence  of  legitimate  authority,  is  an  act  of  usurpation,  incon- 
sistent alike  with  the  enlightenment  of  a  philosopher  or  the  self- 
restraint  of  a  gentleman  or  the  prudence  of  experience. 

*Cf.  page  92. 


ESSENTIAL   FUNCTIONS  207 

Essential  Functions 

The  primary  and  essential  functions  of  the  president  of  an 
American  university  may  now  be  stated  concisely : 

(1)  The  executive  agent  of  the  board  of  regents,  vested  with 
the  authority  inherent  in  his  duty  to  see  that  the  laws  enacted  by 
the  board  are  put  into  effect; 

(2)  The  intimate  expert  adviser  of  the  board,  with  the  right, 
inherent  in  the  responsibility  of  his  presidency  over  the  institu- 
tion, of  selecting  and  nominating  all  appointees  to  university  posi- 
tions ; 

(3)  Leadership  in,  but  not  command  of,  the  whole  conduct  and 
development  of  the  institution. 

Given  the  right  conception  of  these  three  functions,  ordinary 
fidelity  and  good  sense  will  suffice  for  fulfilling  the  first ;  but  the 
second  and  third  make  such  exalted  demands  upon  attainments 
and  character  that  one  misrht  well  ask,  "who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things?"  Certainlv  no  man  could  avoid  mistakes  and  shortcom- 
ings altogether.  President  Alderman  has  said  justlv:  "A  presi- 
dent can  only  avoid  mistakes  bv  cunningly  doinff  nothing.  Tf  an 
institution  would  escape  the  stagnation,  therefore,  of  a  do-nothing 
president  (un  president  faineant}  it  must  be  will  in  &  to  have 
patience  with  his  errors."  For  the  second  and  third  functions, 
a  masterful  knowledge  of  the  nature  and  methods  and  scope  of  edu- 
cation, and  a  catholic  comprehension  of  the  proper  relations  of  all 
branches  of  learning  and  scientific  aims  to  each  other  and  to  indi- 
vidual life  and  to  society,  constitute  but  a  mere  preparation  which 
may  be  attained  by  any  man  endowed  with  philosophical  powers 
of  mind.  There  must  be  added  wisdom  and  courage  and  imagina- 
tion and  sympathy  and  patience  sufficient  to  make  timely  use  of 
that  knowledge  for  practicable  and  judicious  plans.  Some  knowl- 
edge of  law  and  a  deep  feeling  for  orderliness  and  justice  is  an 
essential  qualification  of  a  safe  counsellor  in  such  intricate  and 
far-reaching  affairs :  without  it,  no  matter  with  what  other  knowl- 


208  ESSENTIAL   FUNCTIONS 

:^ 

edge  and  gifts,  disastrous  mistakes  will  follow  one  after  the  other. 
Force  and  clearness  are  needed  to  convince  and  persuade,  else  good 
advice  may  not  be  followed.  Last  and  rarest  of  the  needed  qualifi- 
cations for  rightly  meeting  the  duties  and  opportunities  of  the 
second  and  third  functions,  is  unspoiled  insight  for  knowing 
men. 

Perhaps  more  university  presidents  have  ruined  and  been  ruined 
because  they  were  poor  judges  of  men,  than  for  any  other  one 
cause.  The  insight  that  guides  some  men  to  almost  unerring  judg- 
ments in  this  vital  matter  is,  I  believe,  the  natural  reward  of  a 
M  candid  and  fearless  life.  Habitual  feigning  of  approval  or  cor- 
diality, or  the  experience  of  fear  of  the  face  or  power  of  mortal 
man  or  men,  blears  the  vision  whereby  we  see  each  other  in  true 
character,  as  the  clouding  of  the  optic  lens  balks  physical  eyesight. 
Native  intellectual  powers  and  social  experience  enhance  the  ability, 
but  the  essential  faculty  is  as  generic  in  mankind  as  the  sense  of 
smell;  and  if  evanescent  in  a  once  normal  person  it  has  been 
diminished  through  his  own  counterfeiting  or  cowardice — com- 
monly begun  in  childhood.  Social  experience  rather  enhances  the 
skill  than  increases  the  potential  ability — as  an  eye  may  be  trained 
to  see  more  skillfully  without  causing  any  change  in  the  oculist's 
measurement  of  visual  power.  Those  who  have  enjoyed  from 
earliest  life  social  advantages  of  a  high  order  seem  to  know  almost 
Immediately  "who's  who"  in  a  new  environment.  This  I  suppose 
is  simply  because  they  know  what  is  significant  and  whom  to  be- 
lieve, as  they  casually  hear  estimates  of  their  new  neighbors.  Men 
as  honest  and  perhaps  better  endowed  but  lacking  that  advantage 
flounder  about  without  such  side-lights,  forming  judgments  as 
^opportunities  for  direct  observation  slowly  come. 

If  I  am  permitted  to  relate  an  anecdote  it  may  illustrate 
how  a  clear  case  of  "poor  judge  of  men,"  in  a  university  president, 
is  a  diagnostic  symptom  of  hopeless  incompetence  for  that  office: 
A  new  and  loquacious  university  president,  after  a  full  year's  oppor- 


ESSENTIAL   FUNCTIONS  209 

t unity  for  knowing  the  members  of  the  faculty  (spent  by  him  in 
talking  to  instead  of  listening  to  thtm)  remarked  to  several  mem- 
bers that  one  of  their  colleagues  might  have  certain  merits  but 
totally  lacked  weight  and  influence.  That  president  was  of  the 

sort  that  never  learns  who's  who.  His  opinion  in  this  instance 
was  such  a  far  cry  from  the  fact,  that  it  was  told  on  him  as  a  joke. 

It  had  happened  that  one  of  the  professors  to  whom  he  expressed 
the  opinion,  had  only  a  few  days  before  elaborated  a  ludicrously 
opposite  judgment  in  toasting  at  a  banquet  the  very  man  so  blindly 
misunderstood  by  this  president.  After  twitting  his  colleague  as 
being  "true  as  steel  but  just  as  hard  headed,"  the  said  professor 
had  gone  on  to  say  that  the  speaker  would  rather  have  any  other 
man  he  ever  knew  "down  on  him"  than  that  hard  headed  individ- 
ual, because  his  judgments  of  men  and  things  were  so  clear,  so 
objective,  so  true  and  just,  that  every  man  who  knew  him  seemed 
to  adopt  his  estimates  of  other  men  without  doubt  or  hesitation.  If 
he  damned  a  man  the  man  was  damned,  without  more  ado,  among 
his  acquaintances.  "And  so,"  the  speaker  (a  life-time  friend  of 
the  object  of  his  raillery)  concluded,  "I  have  ever  walked  circum- 
spectly lest  I  might  ramble  into  the  suburbs  of  his  good  pleasure, 
and,  doubtless,  with  this  fear  of  him  before  my  eyes,  I  have  pome- 
times  been  kept  in  a  straight  and  narrow  way  from  which  I  might 
have  wandered.  And  I  have  no  doubt  that  many  of  you  gentlemen 
have  perambulated  in  these  environs  with  a  similar  trepidation 
before  our  arbiter  elegantiarum,  and  with  a  like  wholesome  effect." 
The  approving  laughter  from  a  score  of  colleagues  that  greeted 
this  sally  proved  that  some  truth  had  been  spoken  in  the  jest.  The 
president  referred  to  went  on  for  a  second  year  multiplying  more 
serious  errors,  and  the  next  year  resigned. 

In  all  the  manifold  relations  of  a  university  president's  duties 
and  opportunities  an  intelligent,  quick  sympathy  with  persons  and 
purposes  is  always  a  potent  factor  of  success,  but  such  tact,  as  it 
may  be  called,  is  nowhere  and  never  so  important  as  in  the  case 


210  FACTORS  OF  SUCCESS 

of  the  advent  of  a  new  president.  If  a  president  in  such  a  situa- 
tion does  not  rightly  discern  and  appraise  the  peculiar  spirit  and 
traditions  of  the  institution  he  has  been  called  to  lead,  his  failure 
is  foredoomed.  A  university  that  has  a  clear  and  potent  tradi- 
tion possesses  a  rare  and  precious  heritage.  It  is  a  thing  to  be 
appreciated  and  built  upon,  not  obtusely  ignored.  I  find,  again,  a 
striking  illustration  in  President  Alderman's  call  to  be  the  first 
president  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  Here  was  an  institution, 
where  the  old  graduates  recall  not  buildings,  but  men — instructors 
and  student  companions,  all  conceived  and  known  as  responsible 
individuals.  A  typical  alumnus  of  that  university,  if  he  under- 
took to  account  for  his  culture,  would  call  the  names  of  old  teach- 
ers and  comrades,  as  did  Marcus  Aurelius  ages  ago,  and  above  all 
would  refer  to  the  general  spirit  of  individual  responsibility  and 
self-reliance  that  breathed  in  every  relation  of  his  college  days. 
The  afflatus  of  that  spirit  has  not  been  numbed  in  him  by  sordid  or 
c}mical  doctrines.  It  still  lifts  him  above  cowardice  or  self- 
seeking.  All  this  was  the  result  of  the  interplay  of  various  forces, 
which  would  have  been  stubbornly  and  rightly  arrayed  against  any 
new  administrator  too  callous  to  perceive  or  too  crude  to  appreciate 
such  an  inheritance.  President  Alderman  was  not  found  wanting. 
His  first  public  address  demonstrated  his  ability  to  understand  the 
character  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  He  stated  it  accurately 
and  as  discriminatingly  as  its  oldest  and  most  enlightened  friend 
could  have  done: 

"One  does  not  have  to  search  for  this  institutional  character  as 
for  something  elusive  and  subtle.  It  shines  out  before  the  face  of 
the  stranger  in  five  clear  points  of  light : 

"A  sympathetic  understanding  of  democracy  as  a  working 
hypothesis  of  life,  guaranteeing  to  every  man  a  chance  to  realize 
the  best  that  is  in  him. 

"An  absolute  religious  freedom,  combined  with  wide  and  vital 

• 
religious  opportunities. 


FACTORS   OF   SUCCESS  211 

"An  appeal  to  the  best  in  young  men,  resulting  in  the  creation 
of  a  student  public  opinion  and  a  student  system  of  honor,  which 
endowed  the  university  of  the  past,  and  endows  the  university  of 
to-day  with  its  richet  asset  of  reputation  and  fame. 

"A  high  standard  of  scholarship  rigidly  maintained,  in  an  air 
of  freedom  of  learning  and  freedom  of  teaching,  begetting  an 
austere  ideal  of  intellectual  thoroughness  and  honesty. 

"A  conception  of  culture  as  a  compound  of  sound  learning  and 
gracious  conduct,  as  an  inheritance  of  manhood  and  moral  will 
won  through  discipline  and  conquest,  and  as  a  capacity  to  deal  with 
men  in  the  rough  work  of  the  world  with  gentleness  and  simpli- 
city." 

The  new  president  pledged  himself,  also,  to  do  what  he  could  "to 
cherish  and  magnify,  come  good  days  or  ill,  this  inspiring  univer- 
sity character."  Yet  he  bravely  explained,  "I  do  not  mean  that 
there  should  not  be  readjustment  here — change,  if  you  will — the 
growth  that  is  conservative  of  life  and  that  comes  somehow  out  of 
the  tissues  of  ancient  strength.  A  changing  society  means  a  chang- 
ing curriculum,  and  a  university  is  society  shaping  itself  to  future 
ends.  But  there  are  things  that  are  eternal,  and  the  substance  of 
this  ancient  spirit  of  the  University  of  Virginia  is  one  of  them." 

Wisdom,  imagination,  and  patience  in  its  leader  are  very  re- 
quisite if  the  complex  organism  of  a  university  is  to  be  inspired 
and  guided  for  an  ever  enhancing  service  to  science,  to  its  students, 
and  to  the  industrial,  professional,  political,  and  moral  interests  of 
the  commonwealth.  The  president's  responsibility  for  looking 
ahead  into  the  future  is  a  heavy  one.  No  opportunist  can  be  a 
good  leader  for  a  university.  He  must  be  alert  to  understand 
the  true  bearings  of  every  proposal,  and  firm  to  resist  proposed 
measures  that  would  lead  to  evil  consequences.  Much  misplaced 
zeal  must  be  checked;  a  vast  deal  of  fallacious  logic  must  be  com- 
bated; and  sometimes  conceit  must  be  punctured,  and  even  greed 
restrained.  Almost  as  much  depends  on  preventing  things  from 


212  FACTORS  OF  SUCCESS 

being  done  in  an  injurious  way  and  inhibiting  totally  mistaken 
enterprises,  as  on  securing  correct  procedures  for  good  ends  and 
originating  good  policies. 

A  factor  of  success  as  important  as  any  other,  is  the  rare  quality 
of  natural,  spontaneous,  unrestrained  courage — in  which  is  included 
perfect  candor  when  frankness  is  called  for  and  reticence  would 
be  deceit.  It  was  high  praise  of  President  James,  of  the  University 
of  Illinois,  when  a  trustee  of  Northwestern  University,  speaking  of 
his  presidency  there,  said  of  him:  "He  is  of  judicial  mind,  and 
though  advocating  some  policy  he  would  have  the  university  adopt, 
he  always  pointed  out  its  dangers  as  well  as  its  advantages;  he 
never  misled.  These  qualities  won  for  him  our  confidence." 
Whenever  the  members  of  a  governing  board  begin  to  have  doubts 
of  the  candor  or  balanced  judgment  or  clear  vision  of  their  execu- 
tive and  adviser,  the  end  of  his  influence  and  usefulness  in  that 
institution  is  at  hand.  No  responsible  executive  officer  can  accept 
too  many  votes  of  "lack  of  confidence/'  and  retain  proper  respect. 

The  fundamental  moralities  and  conditions  of  success  as  the 
executive  officer  of  a  governing  board,  are  essentially  the  same  for 
school  superintendents  and  college  presidents.  The  following  para- 
graph from  an  address  to  school  superintendents,  made  by  me  ten 
years  ago,  points  out  a  rock  on  which  many  a  college  president  has 
met  shipwreck : 

"If  the  executive  officer  of  a  governing  board  finds  its  members  divided 
and  mutually  suspicious,  he  should  be  especially  careful  to  discuss  every 
proposal  before  the  full  board  and  to  avoid  even  the  appearance  of  depend- 
ing on  certain  privately  consulted  members.  I  happened  recently  to  read 
the  following  expression  published  by  a  school  superintendent:  'Give  me 
one  strong,  influential  member  on  the  average  board  to  whom  I  can  always 
feel  free  to  go  and  talk  on  every  question,  and  I  will  be  the  ultimate 
manager  of  that  board.'  Alas!  brother,  despite  your  good  intentions,  you 
will  be  an  ultimate  bone  of  contention  between  two  factions  of  that  board, 
if  you  pursue  any  such  policy.  Have  your  personal  friends  among  the 
trustees,  by  all  means;  but  talk  with  them  in  such  intercourse  on  other 


PROBLEM  OF  ELIMINATION  213' 

subjects  rather  than  on  those  which  will  come  before  the  board  for  official 
action.  You  are  the  officer  of  the  entire  body,  not  of  one  or  two  of  its 
members.  They  and  you  meet  at  a  counsel  board,  and  it  is  best  to  have 
all  dealings  above  that  board.  If  the  arguments  you  advance  in  support 
of  your  recommendation  fail  to  commend  it,  do  not  canvass  for  votes; 
seek  better  arguments,  or  possibly  a  better  recommendation.  If  that  policy 
does  not  sooner  or  later  succeed — resign;  and  you  will  advance  in  your 
profession  far  more  than  if,  by  your  practices,  the  board  had  been  split 
into  a  set  majority  for  you  and  a  minority  set  against  you,  and  you  had 
kept  the  place  until  the  tables  turned.  Nothing  would  so  effectively 
increase  the  respect,  the  influence,  and  the  salaries  of  school  superintend- 
ents, as  occasional  resignations  because  too  many  official  recommendations 
had  been  disregarded.  No  responsible  executive  officer  can  accept  too 
many  votes  of  'lack  of  confidence,'  and  retain  proper  respect.  At  present 
boards  of  trustees  generally  imagine  that  school  superintendents  and  col- 
lege presidents  resign  only  to  get  better  salaries  or  when  asked  to  do  so. 
This  is  a  generalization  that  assumes  its  exceptions;  but  all  suffer  from 
the  fact  that  the  generalization  could  be  made  at  all.  We  ought  to  exer- 
cise proper  self-restraint,  but  we  ought  not  to  forfeit  self-respect;  and 
we  ought  to  hold  ourselves  responsible: — ' 'Tis  not  in  mortals  to  command 
success;  we  will  do  more — deserve  it.'" 

The  Problem  of  Elimination 

The  president's  function  of  selecting  and  nominating  all  ap- 
pointees to  university  positions  has  been  stated,  and  what  seems 
to  me  the  only  proper  and  feasible  restraint  and  safeguard  in  the 
exercise  of  that  responsibility  has  been  explained  and  recom- 
mended.* It  remains  to  consider  a  special  phase  of  that  function 
which  always  and  everywhere  presents  peculiar  difficulties.  It  was 
tacitly  postponed,  at  the  previous  connection,  for  separate  treat- 
ment ;  because,  although  I  have  pushed  a  parenthetical  and  digres- 
sive style  to  its  limits  (in  an  endeavor  to  give  every  segment  of  dis- 
cussion such  precision  and  adequacy  that  it  might  bear  study  and 
carry  force  if  studied),  it  was  not  practicable  to  include  in  the 
first  general  statement  this  particular  phase  of  the  question. 

*See  page  204  and  page  133;  cf.  pp.  125-135. 


214  PROBLEM  OF   ELIMINATION 

In  American  colleges  and  universities  there  is  no  automatic  way 
of  getting  rid  of  or  side-tracking  members  of  the  faculty  who, 
whether  by  fault  or  shortcoming,  have  proved  unsuitable  and  un- 
successful. In  German  universities  there  is  an  automatic  check 
on  the  regular  professors  in  the  work  of  the  private  docents.  A 
professor  who  there  grew  neglectful  or  proved  incompetent  would 
have  at  his  side  an  able  young  colleague,  lecturing  on  the  same 
subject,  to  whom  the  students  would  be  sure  to  resort  if  he  showed 
weakness,  or  if  his  work  deteriorated.  But  our  teachers  are  paid 
independently  of  their  students'  discrimination.  Under  such  pro- 
tected conditions,  an  elimination  of  the  unfitted  and  the  failing  by 
some  responsible  authority  is  a  necessity.  The  faculty  cannot  do 
this  directly;  men  and  work  should  be  intelligently  weighed,  not 
voted  on.  The  regents  cannot  do  it  directly.  There  is  nobody  but 
the  president  who  could  do  it.  He  must  do  it — at  his  peril.  Mitiga- 
tion of  that  peril  depends  on  the  justice  and  wisdom  of  his  recom- 
mendations for  terminating  appointments,  and  almost  equally  on 
the  manner  in  which  the  duty  is  performed.  The  latter  point 
will  be  considered  after  presenting  somewhat  further  the  conditions 
in  question. 

Commissioner  Draper,  an  advocate  of  practically  unrestricted 
power  in  the  president  of  a  university,  states  the  matter  forcibly, 
and  correctly  as  far  as  his  statement  goes,  but  he  fails  to  provide 
or  to  see  the  need  of  the  safeguard  that  seems  to  me  to  be  essential. 
Speaking  of  the  necessity  of  "getting  rid  of  teachers  who  do  not 
teach  or  of  investigators  who  do  not  produce,"  he  says : 

"Some  competent  and  protected  authority  must  accomplish  this  and 
continually  reinforce  the  teaching  staff  with  virile  men.  The  competition 
between  institutions  rather  than  between  men,  and  the  natural  reluctance 
at  deposing  a  teacher,  are  producing  pathetic  situations  at  different  points 
in  many  American  universities,  and  are  likely  to  become  the  occasion  of 
more  weakness  in  our  university  system  than  has  been  widely  real- 
ized. .  .  . 
"The  very  life  of  the  institution  depends  upon  eliminating  weak  and 


PROBLEM  OF  ELIMINATION  215 

unproductive  teachers  and  reinforcing  the  teaching  body  with  the  very 
best  [obtainable].  No  board  ever  got  rid  of  a  teacher  or  an  investigator — 
no  matter  how  weak  or  absurd — except  for  immorality  known  to  the  board 
and  likely  to  become  known  to  the  public.  The  reason  why  a  board 
cannot  deal  with  such  a  matter  is  the  lack  of  individual  confidence  about 
what  to  do,  and  of  individual  responsibility  for  doing  either  something 
or  nothing.  But,  with  three  or  four  hundred  in  the  faculty,  the  need  of 
attention  to  this  vital  matter  is  always  present  and  urgent.  No  board 
knows  where  new  men  of  first  quality  are  to  be  found;  no  board  can 
conduct  the  negotiations  for  them  or  fit  them  into  an  harmonious  and 
effective  whole.  The  man  who  is  fitted  for  this  great  burden  and  who 
puts  his  conscience  up  against  his  responsibility  can  hardly  be  expected 
to  tolerate  the  opposition  of  an  unsubstantial  sentiment  which  would 
protect  a  teacher  at  all  hazards,  or  the  more  subtle  combination  of  selfish 
influences  which  puts  personal  over  and  above  public  interests  when  the 
upbuilding  of  a  university  is  the  task  in  hand." 

President  Pritchett  in  his  Annual  Report  for  1909  presents  a 
more  careful,,  inductive  statement: 

"Both  boards  of  trustees  and  executive  officers  of  colleges  find  them- 
selves constantly  called  upon  to  deal  with  men  who  are  clearly  unequal 
to  their  tasks,  and  whose  further  continuance  in  position  is  at  the  expense 
of  scholarship  and  of  the  student  body. 

"This  is  the  old  question  of  all  university  administration.  How  can 
academic  security  and  freedom  be  coupled  with  a  fair  scrutiny  of  the 
efficiency  of  the  men  who  are  concerned?  The  question  is  a  little  different 
from  what  it  is  in  England  and  in  Germany  because  of  our  different  edu- 
cational organization  in  institutions  of  higher  learning.  Our  institu- 
tional administration  is  a  more  centralized  one;  the  president  has  larger 
powers  and  is  more  directly  responsible  for  the  efficiency  and  well-being 
of  the  whole  institution  than  is  the  case  of  any  one  officer  in  a  European 
university.  These  considerations  suggest  that  our  organization  will  be 
subjected  to  a  somewhat  closer  scrutiny  than  it  has  hitherto  had, — a 
scrutiny  dealing  with  both  academic  freedom  and  scholarly  efficiency. 

"Out  of  the  mass  of  facts  which,  have  been  referred  to  in  this  report, 
the  following  underlying  principles  seem  to  emerge  as  the  basis  upon  which 
the  study  of  the  American  university  must  proceed. 


21 G  PROBLEM  OF  ELIMINATION 

"First,  while  the  American  university  president  will  have  larger  powers 
than  the  chief  officer  of  foreign  universities,  these  powers  will  go  hand 
in  hand  with  the  independence  and  security  alike  of  presidnet  and  pro- 
fessor. In  order  that  this  may  be  accomplished,  the  appointment  and  the 
dismissal  of  teachers  must  rest  on  some  wider  action  than  the  recommenda- 
tion of  a  single  individual. 

"Second,  in  the  interest  of  efficiency  and  of  the  whole  cause  of  educa- 
tion, the  individual  who  looks  toward  the  career  of  the  college  professor 
must  go  through  a  probationary  term,  in  which  his  appointment  shall  be 
for  a  limited  time.  This  practice  is  already  in  operation  ;n  many  col- 
leges and  universities,  assistant  professors  being  appointed  usually  for  a 
period  of  three  or  five  years,  this  period  being  looked  upon  as  a  proba- 
tionary period  during  which  the  man's  fitness  must  be  proved  before  he 
is  taken  into  a  secured  position. 

"Third,  the  college  professor  must  in  the  future  submit  more  directly 
than  in  the  past  to  some  scrutiny  of  his  work  and  of  his  results,  as  well 
as  to  some  examination  of  the  extent  of  his  co-operation  with  other  men 
in  the  institution.  .  .  .  The  development  of  effective  responsibility 
within  the  college  itself  is  alike  in  the  interest  of  the  professor  and  of 
the  cause  of  education,  and  to  this  development  the  American  teacher  him- 
self should  lend  his  best  effort." 

It  is,  indeed,  evident  that  "some  wider  action  than  the  recom- 
mendation of  a  single  individual"  is  needed.  Justice  and  decorum 
require  this,  and  it  is  needed  as  a  safeguard  for  the  president.  But 
I  believe  it  would  be  sufficient  to  follow  the  procedure  already  pro- 
posed for  the  proper  adjustment  of  formal  relations  between  presi- 
dent and  faculty,  in  the  second  part  of  the  plan  for  the  faculty's 
participation  in  government,  explained  in  pages  125  to  135.  I 
would  merely  add  that  one  distinction  ought  to  be  recognized  be- 
tween a  new  selection  for  appointment  to  a  position  in  the  faculty, 
and  the  dropping  or  dismissal  of  a  member.  In  the  former  case 
in  the  rare  instances  in  which  the  council  might  dissent  from  the 
president,  the  board  of  regents  must,  on  principle,  uphold  the 
president.  No  personal  injustice  could  thus  be  done,  and  presi- 
dent's responsibility  entitles  him  to  control  the  selections  of  new  ad- 


PROBLEM   OF   ELIMINATION  217 

ditions  to  the  faculty.  In  the  latter  case,  I  believe  the  board  should 
not  be  formally  bound  to  adopt  the  president's  opinion,  if  the  coun- 
cil reported  dissent,  but  should  weigh  the  reasons  to  the  contrary 
presented  by  the  council.  Generally  the  president's  counsel  would 
and  probably  should  be  followed,  but  the  principle  that  ought  to 
control  is  different.  As  in  the  case  of  a  new  nomination  the  presi- 
dent's selection,  duly  explained  in  council,  would  generally  be  ap- 
proved, or  his  own  opinion  be  changed  by  helpful  discussion;  so  an 
opinion  on  his  part  that  some  one  ought  no  longer  be  retained  would 
generally  be  justified  to  the  council,  or  corrected  in  his  own  judg- 
ment, and  no  dissent  would  occur.  In  either  case,  it  is  far  better  that 
the  council's  rarely  occurring  difference  should  be  known  in  an  open 
and  orderly  way,  than  that  acts  that  take  the  faculty  by  surprise 
should  be  murmured  against.  If  the  faculty  knew  that  all  nomina- 
tions for  advancement  and  for  filling  .vacancies  and  all  recommen- 
dations for  elimination  had  been  explained  to  a  council  chosen  by 
themselves,  they  would  feel  that  the  president's  opinions  had  been 
justified  before  their  own  representatives.  This  simple  procedure 
would  rescue  the  president  of  the  American  university  from  the 
position  and  attitude  of  an  alienated  commander,  and  would  open 
to  him  the  place  of  a  trusted  leader. 

The  second  of  the  "underlying  principles,"  stated  by  President 
Pritchett  as  the  basis  upon  which  the  elimination  of  the  unfit  must 
be  secured,  need  not  be  discussed  in  this  connection.  It  is  already 
generally  recognized,  will  scarcely  be  disputed  by  any  one,  and  will 
be  considered  in  the  next  chapter  from  a  more  general  stand- 
point. 

It  only  remains  to  form  just  ideas  of  the  "scrutiny"  of  work  and 
results  and  cooperation  with  others,  that  must  somehow  precede  the 
conclusions  upon  which  elimination  is  to  be  based.  On  this  point 
the  talk  of  the  petty-minded  and  of  those  who  lack  intimate  knowl- 
edge, and  the  spirit  of  the  martinet  are  likely  to  work  havoc.  Any 
notion  of  an  inspector  of  class-room  work,  or  of  time-card  records 


218  PROBLEM   OF   ELIMINATION 

in  the  business  office,  is  absurd  in  its  futility  and  utter  inapplica- 
bility to  the  real  thing.  How,  then,  is  the  requisite  scrutiny 
to  take  place,  and  the  needed  criticism  to  be  made?  Here  is  no 
mystery  to  those  who  understand — who  know  the  work  and  the 
life;  but  it  may  puzzle  even  an  intelligent  man  if  he  has  no  famil- 
iarity with  such  affairs  and  has  never  thought  closely  upon  the 
subject. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  understood  that  no  such  simple 
scrutiny  and  estimates  as  are  made  of  the  results  or  output  of  the 
workers  in  a  shoe  factory  would  be  possible.  In  the  second  place, 
the  uninitiated  must  believe  that  estimates,  as  just  and  correct  as 
need  be  for  eliminating  purposes,  are  not  difficult  for  a  competent 
president  to  make.  The  most  just  and  erpedient  selections  for 
advancement  are  more  difficult.  For  neither  purpose  does  the  pres- 
ident need  to  go  about  class-rooms  on  tours  of  formal  inspection. 
It  may  be  remarked  in  this  connection  ,  however,  that  it 
a  serious  indictment  against  the  manner  and  matter  of 
the  instruction  commonly  given  to  university  students  by 
American  professors,  that  neither  the  president  nor  their 
colleagues  are  naturally  attracted  to  attend  any  of  the  reg- 
ular lectures  they  deliver.  That  which  is  a  matter  of  course 
in  Europe,  as  it  ought  to  be  among  intellectual  men  anywhere,  is 
a  rare  exception  in  our  universities.  Nothing  points  more  signi- 
ficantly to  the  miserable  consequences  of  treating  young  men  as  if 
they  were  children  and  of  leveling  everything  to  a  supposed  capac- 
ity of  the  weak  and  the  supposed  benefit  of  the  "greatest  num- 
ber." 

If  a  president  attempts  to  control  the  details  of  all  work  in 
the  institution,  he  will  do  all  of  that  badly,  and  will  lack  time  for 
his  proper  functions;  but  if  the  institution  is  well  organized  for 
administrative  purposes  a  competent  president  may  easily  form 
just  estimates  of  every  member  of  the  faculty  in  ways  far  more 
reliable  than  the  crass  method  of  a  supervising  inspector.  The 


PROBLEM  OF   ELIMINATION  219 

task  is  not  so  heavy  as  the  large  number  of  individuals  concerned 
might  suggest.  In  many  cases  diligence  and  high  quality  of  service 
•would  be  evident,  in  many  others  it  would  be  evident  that  there 
was  no  occasion  to  consider  the  question  of  elimination.  The 
doubtful  and  suspicious  cases  would  not  be  numerous.  Each 
should  be  looked  into  sufficiently  to  reach  a  clear  opinion.  In  the 
case  of  a  young  member  holding  a  temporary  appointment  on  trial, 
the  counsel  of  the  chief  men  of  the  department  would  generally  be 
sufficient,  if  corroborated  by  the  president's  personal  impressions  in 
the  light  of  known  facts.  If  a  president  is  a  poor  judge  of  men 
and  scholars,  he  is  not  qualified  to  meet  the  most  primary  and 
essential  duty  of  his  office,  and  mistakes  of  omission  and  commis- 
sion will  accumulate  inevitably. 

Always  the  president  ought  to  know  personally  the  instructor 
whose  elimination  he  recommends.  And  when  he  has  reached 
his  decision,  he  ought  to  inform  the  person  most  interested  of  his 
intention,  telling  at  least  some  of  his  reasons.  This  is  not  a 
pleasant  duty,  but  it  is  a  plain  one.  The  person  to  be  eliminated  V 
is  entitled  to  know  that  his  services  are  not  desired  for  the  follow- 
ing year,  in  time  to  seek  another  position — to  mention  only  one 
very  practical  basis  of  his  rights  in  the  premises.  In  my  judgment 
even  a  coward  fortified  by  a  proper  love  of  justice  would  not  fail 
in  this  plain  duty.  I  need  not,  therefore,  make  more  explicit  my 
opinion  of  the  personal  character  of  the  university  presidents  who 
permit  members  of  the  faculty  to  find  out  from  the  public  press, 
or  through  some  leakage,  in  June  after  the  adjournment  of  the 
board  of  regents,  that  they  have  been  eliminated  from  the  service 
of  the  institution.  That  such  conduct  is  not  unusual  is  not  only 
an  offense  to  decency  and  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization,  but  it  means 
a  corrupting  atmosphere  for  the  youth  who  are  enticed  into  such 
colleges  and  universities. 

It  is  the  wrong  and  cowardly  manner  of  dismissal,  not  the  mere 
fact,  that  causes  bitterness  and  personal  animosities,  and  has  made 


220  PROBLEM  OF  ELIMINATION 

elimination  the  difficult  and  dreaded  thing  it  appears  to  be  to  col- 
lege presidents  and  governing  boards.  A  wrong  method  of  reach- 
ing the  decision  causes  it  to  seem  unjust  and  despotic,  and  a  timid 
secretive  manner  of  performing  the  act  arouses  suspicions  of 
various  obliquities.  On  such  conditions,  many  will  disapprove  and 
one  will  passionately  resent.  The  open  and  decorous  procedure  I 
recommend  would  command  general  confidence;  and,  if  the  presi- 
dent be  a  magnanimous  man,  the  timely  interview  with  the  in- 
structor to  be  dropped  would  often  be  the  occasion  of  a  personal 
reaction  the  very  opposite  of  resentment.  There  is  no  analogy  be- 
tween the  relation  of  a  member  of  the  faculty  to  a  college  president, 
and  that  of  a  brakeman  to  a  railroad  superintendent;  but  the  follow- 
ing episode,  told  by  a  distinguished  efficiency  engineer,  illustrates 
a  trait  in  human  nature  that  ought  to  be  well  known  to  every  col- 
lege president  (and  school  superintendent)  from  his  own  exper- 
ience :  "A  railroad  brakeman  was  put  on  the  carpet  by  a  superin- 
tendent. He  came  out  from  the  ordeal  and  exclaimed :  'That  is  the 
whitest  man  who  ever  lived.'  'Did  he  reinstate  you?'  asked  his 
companions.  'Reinstate  me !  No,  he  fired  me;  but  he  talked  to  me 
as  if  he  were  my  father.'  * 

The  elimination  of  a  member  of  the  faculty  who  has  passed  the 
proper  probationary  stages,  for  other  cause  than  the  infirmities 
of  old  age,  ought  to  be,  and  is,  an  extraordinary  occurrence  in 
reputable  institutions.  Such  cases  arise  from  peculiar  circum- 
stances, and  are  dealt  with  at  least  openly,  whether  wisely  or  mis- 
takenly. Some  remarks  upon  this  subject  are  offered  in  the  fol- 
lowing chapter,  in  connection  with  a  brief  discussion  of  lehrfrei- 
beit. 

Some  current  public  discussions  seem  to  call  for  a  few  further 
observations  on  the  subject  of  "scrutiny"  for  the  purpose  of  elimi- 
nation. Perhaps  the  most  morbid  symptom  of  conditions  under 
which  the  enterprise  of  higher  education  labors  in  this  country, 
appears  in  the  manner  in  which  some  presidents  speak  of  college 
and  university  professors.  Ideas  have  been  advanced  and  Ian- 


PROBLEM  OF  ELIMINATION  221 

guage  employed  which  may  be  more  or  less  applicable  to  the  teach- 
ers in  a  city's  public  schools  (mostly  women  with  only  normal 
school  training,  or  less),  but  are  preposterous  in  reference  to  a 
university's  work  and  faculty.  If  there  were  in  particular  institu- 
tions any  justification  of  such  ideas  and  language,  the  fact  would 
be  the  most  grievous  of  indictments  against  the  presidents  who 
created  or  tolerate  the  condition.  Ae  an  example  of  the  misconcep- 
tions alluded  to,  the  young  president  of  an  aspiring  college  recently 
published  his  inductions  from  a  visitation  of  "one  hundred  and  five 
of  the  institutions  listed  in  the  reports  of  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Education  as  colleges  and  universities."  He  infers 
from  his  observations  that  one  of  the  essential  obligations  which 
American  college  presidents  are  expected  to  meet,  is — "the  presi- 
dent should  supervise  the  teaching."  He  had  explained:  "The 
question  what  should  be  expected  of  a  college  president  I  have  not 
ventured  to  discuss.  I  have  confined  myself  to  conditions  as  I  have 
found  them  in  one  hundred  of  our  better  institutions."  But  he 
appears  to  comment  in  his  own  part  on  the  need  of  the  presiden- 
tial presence  and  supervision  in  the  class-rooms,  and  concludes,  "Tt 
is  reasonable  to  expect  him  to  supervise  the  teaching  until  that 
duty  is  definitely  assigned  to  another  person."  Before  such  mis- 
conceptions one  stands  aghast.  Of  course,  the  notion  would  be 
repudiated  at  the  great  majority  of  "our  better  institutions," — but 
that  it  could  be  expressed  by  a  college  president  at  all !  0  lehrfrei- 
heit,  0  tempora,  0  mores.  Where  are  we,  and  whither  are  we 
tending,  when  a  young  president  of  pure  purpose  and  many  tal- 
ents, visiting  the  best  hundred  of  our  universities  and  colleges  to 
improve  his  qualifications  for  the  presidency  of  a  new  and  aspiring 
college,  learns  that  a  university  president  in  this  country  must 
"supervise  the  teaching"  in  order  to  fulfill  his  duty  and  meet  what 
is  expected  of  him, — at  least  until  that  duty  is  definitely  assigned  to 
another  person  ?  May  we  not  assure  the  young  man  that  no  such 
burden  rests  upon  him?  I  also  entreat  him  not  to  assign  "that 
duty"  to  "another  person,"  and  especially  not  to  his  deans.  The 


222  "COLLEAGUESHIP"    WITH   FACULTY 

young  instructors  will  be  sufficiently  (perhaps  too  much)  super- 
vised by  their  departmental  colleagues ;  the  professors  are  past  such 
supervision.  And  who  of  mortal  men  could  supervise  the  teaching 
of  a  university  faculty,  even  if  it  were  desirable  ?  Men  must  stand 
on  their  own  feet  in  a  college  or  university — both  teachers  and 
taught,  or  lo !  no  "higher  education"  will  be  found  in  the  place. 

A  very  different,  but  perhaps  more  injurious,  because  less  absurd, 
attitude  is  exposed  in  a  casual  remark  by  the  president  of  the 
largest  university  in  the  United  States  of  America :  "Almost  with- 
out exception  the  men  who  to-day  occupy  the  most  conspicuous 
positions  in  the  United  States  have  worked  their  way  up,  by  their 
own  ability,  from  very  humble  beginnings.  The  heads  of  the 
great  universities  were  every  one  of  them  not  long  ago  hum- 
ble and  poorly  compensated  teachers."  It  must  be  inferred  that 
President  Butler  here  exposes  his  attitude  toward  the  university 
professor;  because,  if  he  had  had  in  mind  experiences  of  early  life, 
he  would  necessarily  have  said  that  the  once  humble  teacher  was 
now  either  a  professor  in  a  great  university  or  its  administrative 
head.  In  no  other  manner  could  such  a  remark  be  made  in  Ger- 
many or  in  England,  or  even  in  bureaucratic  France.  It  cannot 
be  well  with  us  until  great  professors  in  an  American  university 
are  esteemed  as  its  distinguished  men — of  whom  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  speak  as  "humble"  in  comparison  with  the  president 
of  the  university.  The  presidential  office  is  honorable  and  servicea- 
ble only  as  it  serves  to  gather  together  strong  men  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  young  and  the  advancement  of  knowledge. 

The  Attitude  of  Colleagueship  With  Faculty 

A  point  of  subtle  difficulty  and  danger,  in  both  the  spirit  and 
the  formalities  of  university  organization,  is  involved  in  the  atti- 
tude of  colleagueship  with  the  faculty,  which  is  everywhere  imposed 
upon  the  president  and  at  least  passively  assumed  by  him.  Herein 
lies  a  cruel  difficulty  for  him ;  because  "no  man  can  serve  two  mas- 
ters: for  either  he  will  hate  the  one,  and  love  the  other;  or  else 


"COLLEAGUESHIP"    WITH   FACULTY  223 

he  will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other/'  It  would  seem 
that  a  little  clear  thinking  would  prevent  this  confusion,  but  the 
security  conferred  hy  a  logical  organization  truly  adapted  to  the 
nature  and  ideals  of  each  enterprise  is  only  recently*  coming  to 
be  understood  and  appreciated  by  a  few  leading  minds — notably 
by  some  of  the  best  efficiency  engineers. 

The  president  of  the  American  university  is  primarily  and 
necessarily  the  executive  officer  and  expert  adviser  of  the  board  of 
regents.  His  other  function  of  general  leadership,  as  has  been 
fully  explained,  demands  comprehension  of  and  sympathy  with 

" 

the  work  of  the  faculty;  but  his  most  immediate  official  loyalty 
belongs  to  the  governing  board.  He  cannot  otherwise  be  that 
board's  trusted  adviser. 

The  plan  that  has  been  proposed  for  participation  by  representa- 
tives of  the  faculty  in  the  counsels  of  the  governing  board,  and  for 
the  president's  consultation  with  representative  councils,  would 
remove  the  fatal  fault  of  organization  by  which  the  president  has 
hitherto  undertaken  to  be  the  exclusive  representative  of  the  faculty 
to  the  board,  and  at  the  same  time  the  independent  adviser  of  the 
board.  Those  functions  are  contradictory;  no  man  can  always  be 
faithful  in  both.  Hence  the  universal  accusations  of  bad  faith — 
necessarily  more  or  less  justified  under  an  impossible  theory  of  the 
president's  functions  and  obligations.  But  there  might  still  re- 
main, after  such  correction  of  fundamental  procedures  as  has  been 
recommended,  the  question  we  are  now  considering.  It  would, 
indeed,  be  an  illogical  survival  from  previous  habits  of  thought; 
but  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  do  away  with  fixed  ideas,  or  to  put 
an  end  to  an  habitual  employment  of  misused  words — those  "unjust 
stewards  of  men's  ideas." 

If  it  be  admitted  that  the  proper  functions  of  the  university 

*The  importance  of  logical  relations  in  the  agencies  for  the  government 
of  states  was  insisted  upon  by  men  like  Montesquieu  and  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton; but  such  principles  have  been  ignored  or  despised  among  us,  even 
in  that  sphere,  for  more  than  a  century. 


224  "COLLEAGUESIIIP"    WITH    FACULTY 

president  have  been  correctly  stated  on  page  207  of  this  study,  it 

should  follow  that  the  inconsistent  and  deceptive  attitude  of  col- 
leagueship  with  the  members  of  the  faculty  ought  to  be  carefully 
avoided.  Judges  should  be  selected  from  members  of  the  bar  for 
appointment  on  the  bench,  and  judge  and  practitioner  are  of  one 
legal  profession;  but  the  bench  is  not  the  bar,  and  a  judge  ceases 
to  be  in  a  specific  sense  a  colleague  of  the  attorneys  who  practice 
before  him.  Even  so  the  governing  board  of  a  university  should 
select  for  its  executive  officer  and  president  of  the  institution  one 
who  knows  the  vital  work  and  aims  of  a  university  in  a  professional 
way;  but  that  officer,  as  such,  is  no  more  specifically  a  colleague 
of  the  members  of  the  faculty  than  a  regent  is  their  colleague. 
I  am,  of  course,  aware  that  this  is  an  unheard  of  contention ;  but  I 
submit  it  upon  its  rational  appeal.  The  reader  may  judge  for 
himself. 

I  believe  it  would  help  every  president  immensely  if  he  and  the 
professoriate  adopted  clearly  and  followed  with  thoroughgoing  con- 
sistency the  theory  of  the  presidential  office  I  have  propounded. 
Intercourse  would  become  natural,  respective  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities would  be  mutually  recognized.  Men  could  then  differ  in 
judgment  about  particulars  without  bitterness.  The  present  anoma- 
lous attitudes  pervert  judgments  and  engender  animosities.  This 
is  manifested  in  almost  every  discussion  of  the  presidential  office 
by  university  professors.  Even  so  clear  and  candid  a  thinker  as 
Professor  Jastrow  is  tripped  by  the  unconscious  misconception. 
Speaking  of  the  president's  treatment  of  salaries  in  the  budget,  he 
complains:  "The  administrative  feeling  creeps  in,  or  is  openly 
defended,  that  so  long  as  places  can  be  filled,  salaries  are  not  the 
first  consideration.  It  is  this  phase  of  the  presidential  activity 
that  estranges  him  from  colleagueship  with  his  faculty."  This 
remark,  I  say,  is  made  by  an  experienced  and  distinguished  profes- 
sor, and  not  casually,  but  in  a  careful  critical  discussion  of  marked 
ability.  It  illustrates  how  the  misconception  of  colleagueship  with 
the  faculty  adds  the  sting  of  betrayal  to  difference  of  opinion. 


"COLLEAGUESHIP"    WITH   FACULTY  225 

Under  proper  conceptions  it  would  be  impossible  to  say  that,  the 
administrative  feeling  creeps  in  on  the  chief  administrator,  or  that 
the  loyalties  of  colleagueship  with  the  faculty  were  betrayed  by  the 
president, — nor  would  the  faculty,  it  may  be  added,  ever  be  spoken 
of  as  his  faculty.  These  are  not  matters  of  rhetorical  precision; 
the  misconceptions  and  deep  connotations  of  such  expressions  cause, 
as  Francis  Bacon  long  ago  explained,  "a  predisposition  of  the  mind 
which  distorts  and  infects  all  the  anticipations  of  the  understand- 
ing/' The  administrative  standpoint  is  properly  taken  by  the 
president.  Adequate  and  rightly  distributed  salaries  are  not  prop- 
erly matters  of  sentiment,  but  of  wise  administration.  If,  for 
instance,  a  president  commits  the  error  of  advocating  salaries  for 
new  and  obscure  incumbents  in  chairs  created  mainly  f^r  advertis- 
ing purposes,  exceeding  those  of  distinguised  scholars,  who,  in 
their  more  ordinary  chairs,  give  the  institution  its  real  standing 
and  prestige, — that  is,  indeed,  a  grievous  mistake.  But  it  would  be 
far  more  effectively  met  on  its  true  and  proper  ground.  It  is  an 
administrative  mistake.  It  can  be  proved  to  be  such  an  error.  To 
drag  in  passions,  involved  with  notions  about  treason  to  colleagues, 
when  there  is  no  real  colleagueship,  only  makes  confusion  worse 
confounded,  and  renders  mutual  understanding  practically  im- 
possible. 

Every  university  president  would  do  well  to  cease  from  vain 
attempts  to  pose  as  a  member  of  the  faculty.  The  present  mis-  / 
taken  theory  demands  an  acrobatic  feat  that  cannot  be  performed 
successfully.  The  president  may  properly,  at  his  pleasure,  preside 
over  a  meeting  of  the  faculty;  but  it  should  be  done  as  president 
of  the  university,  not  as  chairman  of  the  faculty, — just  as  he  may 
preside  over  any  convocation  in  the  university.  But  he  should 
often  attend  faculty  meetings  when  he  does  not  preside.  The 
president,  for  many  reasons,*  should  attend  as  many  of  the  meet- 
ings of  every  faculty  as  he  can.  He  may  thus,  for  instance,  give 

*See  page  235. 


220  "COLLEAGUESHIP"    WITH    FACULTY 

each  faculty  the  benefit  of  the  experience  of  all  the  others.  But 
there  is  no  need  for  him  to  be  the  chairman  of  every  faculty,  in 
order  to  render  this  or  any  other  service.  The  chairman  of  the 
faculty  should  be  its  own  dean  elected  by  the  faculty.  The  faculty 
might  very  properly,  on  some  occasion,  wish  to  meet  without  the 
president's  presence, — not  as  a  surreptitious  conclave,  but  in  the 
full  formality  of  its  corporate  dignity. 

I  believe  the  more  such  an  organization  and  accordant  attitudes 
are  considered,  the  more  reasonable  and  advantageous  they  will  ap- 
pear. The  president's  influence  would  be  enhanced,  not  dimin- 
ished. Faculty  meetings  would  be  voluntarily  much  better  at- 
tended. The  proposals  and  counsels  that  the  president  often 
desires  and  needs  to  submit  to  the  faculty,  would  be  heard  by  its 
best  and  strongest  members,  who  now  so  frequently  absent  them- 
selves. Good  and  strong  men  abominate  shams.  Such  men  have 
come  to  loathe  the  travesty  of  the  so-called  "faculty  meetings"  of 
the  prevalent  practice.  If  faculty  meetings  are  conducted  by  the 
president,  all  appointments,  rulings,  and  initiative  tend  to  fall  upon 
him,  even  if  they  are  not  rashly  assumed  by  him.  Young  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  whose  breeding  and  innate  character  do  not 
keep  them  immune  from  a  base  contagion,  fall  into  sycophancy,  or 
into  a  legislative  precipitancy  and  insolence  that  renders  them 
and  their  influence  upon  students  a  menace  to  society.  Genuine 
deliberation  tends  to  vanish.  Protests,  hopelessly  made  by  wiser 
heads  from  a  sense  of  personal  integrity  and  to  wash  their  hands 
of  the  matter,  are  flippantly  disregarded  by  an  always  safe  majority 
eager  to  follow  the  chairman's  suggestions.  A  president  may 
begin  with  a  sincere  desire  that  his  opinions  should  gain  weight 
from  their  wisdom  rather  than  from  their  source;  but  the  destruc- 
tive tendency  inheres  in  the  system.  The  characteristic  results 
will  be  manifested  in  the  long  run, — quicklv  in  a  young  institution 
destitute  of  resistant  traditions. 

The  "drift  within  the  university"  consequent  upon  faculty  meet- 
ings of  the  prevalent  sort,  is  pointed  out  by  almost  every  observer. 


"COLLEAGUESHIP"    WITH    FACULTY  227 

It  often  carries  things  beyond  any  original  purpose  of  the  unwit- 
ting presidential  instigator.  Compliant  claqueures  tend  to  out- 
Herod  their  Herod.  Professor  Jastrow  observes : 

"The  drift  within  the  university  is  toward  winning  those  marks  of  suc- 
cess upon  which  administrative  dominance  sets  greatest  store.  .  .  . 
The  same  spirit  is  felt  throughout  every  detail  of  university  life,  from 
athletics  up  or  down  as  our  standards  may  be.  It  tempts  the  professor 
to  spend  his  energies  in  securing  large  classes;  it  sets  departments  to 
devising  means  to  outrank  in  numbers  the  devotees  of  other  departments;, 
it  makes  the  student  feel  that  he  is  conferring  a  favor  upon  the  university 
by  coming,  and  then  upon  the  professor  by  choosing  his  classes;  it  leads 
the  administration  to  value  the  professor's  service  by  his  talents  in  these 
directions,  to  appraise  executive  work,  at  least  financially,  far  more  highly 
than  professional  service;  and,  worst  of  all,  it  contaminates  the  academic 
atmosphere  so  that  all  life  and  inspiration  go  out  of  it,  or  would,  if  the 
professor's  ideals  did  not  serve  as  a  protecting  aegis  to  resist,  often  with 
much  personal  sacrifice,  these  untoward  influences." 

There  is  one  point  upon  which  I  should  be  careful  to  avoid  pos- 
sible misunderstanding.  If  the  president  is  not  a  member  of  the 
faculty,  someone  may  wonder:  What  channel  is  left  open  to  him 
for  actively  expressing  the  allegiance  he  still  owes  to  teaching  and 
to  science — his  original  professional  obligation?  If  in  any  rare 
instance  a  university  president  wished  to  offer  throughout  a  term 
a  course  of  instruction  in  the  regular  curriculum,  there  would  be 
no  difficulty  in  arranging  for  him  to  be,  quo  ad  hoc,  a  member 
of  the  faculty,  entirely  aside  from  his  presidential  office.  But  the 
teaching  obligation  seems  to  be  more  honored  in  the  breach  than 
in  the  observance  by  the  presidents  of  our  universities.  No  one 
could  more  deplore  the  preoccupation,  or  neglect,  or  inability,  thus 
implied,  than  do  I;  nor  does  any  advice  of  mine  militate  against 
the  resuscitation  of  the  impulse  that  ought  to  prompt  and  compel 
university  presidents  to  meet  the  students  and  faculty,  on  convenient 
occasions,  as  a  lover  of  learning  and  the  communication  thereof, 
and,  if  possible,  as  a  creator  of  new  knowledge  and  announcer 
thereof.  In  general,  it  is  only  an  irregular  lecture  or  course  of 


228  "COLLEAGUESHIP"    WITH    FACULTY 

lectures  that  should  be  expected  in  the  university  from  its  presi- 
dent. Against  this  an  objection  seems  to  arise  from  a  petty  notion 
that  the  university  student  should  and  must  receive  "credit"  in 
marks  in  the  registrar's  office  for  everything  he  listens  to.  There 
are  victims  of  the  marking  mania  who  imagine  that  irregular 
scholarly  lectures  by  members  of  the  faculty  or  by  the  president 
are  practically  barred  on  this  account.  "How  could  the  student 
get  credits?"  The  question  deserves  only  such  an  answer  as  that 
of  the  captain  of  Napoleon's  Old  Guard  when  asked  whether  he 
was  ready  to  surrender.  Let  the  president  lecture  to  who  will  come 
to  hear,  as  he  may  be  able.  He  will  be  better  able  to  do  some 
scholarly  work  once  in  a  while,  if  he  will  put  far  from  him  the 
fantasy  that  everybody  and  everything  always  needs  to  be  directed 
and  managed  and  controlled  by  the  president.  For  the  satfe 
of  manhood,  to  say  nothing  of  science,  let  there  be  one  point  in 
American  university  life  where  credits  in  the  registrar's  office  may 
be  forgotten.  Let  the  president  lecture  when  he  has  something 
worth  saying  for  the  instruction  of  the  young,  or  for  the  advance- 
ment of  knowledge.  Let  his  lectures,  at  least,  be  one  oasis  in  which 
grade  marks  are  ignored.  I  know  young  men  and  their  hearts. 
T  know  too  that  they  have  no  worse  traducers  than  a  certain  sort 
of  university  instructor.  If  a  competent  president  would  adopt 
the  course  I  suggest,  it  would  afford  a  salutary  object  lesson  to 
many  members  of  the  faculty.  They  would  see  lectures  attended 
regardless  of  credits.*  The  fact  might  open  their  understand- 
ings. 


*I  knew  of  a  young  instructor,  twelve  years  ago,  in  the  department  of 
philosophy  of  a  great  university,  whose  regular  lectures  were  frequently 
attended  by  members  of  the  faculties  of  other  departments,  and  whose 
audiences  usually  included  a  large  number  of  students  who  were  not 
enrolled  for  the  courses  and  received  no  "credit"  for  their  attendance. 

It  is  reported  that  the  biggest  amphitheatre  possessed  by  the  Coltige 
de  France  is  too  small  to  hold  Henri  Bergson's  would-be  hearers:  "Long 
before  the  lecture  hour  the  seats  and  the  steps  of  the  aisles,  which  can  be 
made  to  serve  as  seats,  are  pre-empted  by  patient  waiters.  .  .  .  The 
standing  room  fills  up  rapidly  also.  .  .  .  When  the  lecture  begins,  the 
sitters,  and  such  of  the  standers  as  are  lucky  enough  to  have  their  arms 


"COLLEAGUESHIP"  WITH  FACULTY  229 

The  advising  and  control  of  students  belongs  functionally  to  the 
faculties  and  their  deans,  nevertheless  it  behooves  the  president  to 
keep  in  vital  touch  with  the  students.  There  need  be  no  systematic 
method  in  this  relation,  and  the  intercourse  that  should  sustain 
it  had  better  not  be  too  common.  From  time  to  time  the  president 
ought  to  have  something  which  he  wishes  to  say  to  the  student 
body,  and  if  he  is  of  the  right  stuff  for  his  calling,  he  will  know 
how  to  make  such  irregular  occasions  natural  and  effective  chan- 
nels for  the  personal  influence  with  the  young  that  should  be  an 
abiding  desire  of  his  heart.  If  a  college  president  does  not  under- 
stand young  men,  he  does  not  understand  the  business  he  is  set  to 
administer.  Of  one  thing,  at  least,  he  may  be  sure:  whether  lie 
understands  them  or  not,  they  will  understand  him.  President 
Benton,  in  his  book  The  Real  College,  justly  observes : 

"These  keen  young  minds  will  read  him  through  and  through.  To  others 
he  may  make  himself  opaque.  To  his  students  he  is  always  thoroughly 
transparent.  .  .  .  There  is  no  stronger  disciple  of  the  gospel  of  the 
'square  deal'  than  the  young  collegian.  A  president  will  never  control 
Trim  by  abuse.  He  will  not  win  him  by  oppression.  College  students  hold 
tyranny  and  play  to  the  galleries  in  equal  contempt.  They  like  an  expres- 
sion of  confidence  and  appreciation  when  it  is  merited.  They  will  aecept 
deserved  rebuke  properly  administered.  They  despise  unmerited  com- 
mendation. They  honor  perfect  frankness.  The  alert  mind  of  youth  is 
quick  to  distinguish  between  the  genuine  and  the  counterfeit.  A  college 
president  can  afford  to  be  an  artisan  in  raising  money.  He  can  afford  to 
"be  nothing  less  than  an  artist  in  shaping  immortal  men." 


iree,  scribble  furiously  in  their  note-books.  .  .  .  The  lecturer  is  short 
of  stature,  spare,  an  almost  perfect  ascetic  type,  somewhat  gray,  and 
slightly  bald.  ...  He  speaks  slowly  and  distinctly,  but  easily,  with 
engaging  indifference  to  his  notes,  and  without  any  effort  at  oratory. 
....  It  is  as  though  sheer  intellect,  abstract  intellect,  were  endowed 
with  the  power  of  speech.  There  is  not  the  slightest  trace  in  M.  Bergson's 
manner  of  vanity,  .  .  .  nor  is  there  a  scrap  of  the  unlovely  pedantry 
and  arid  officialism,  against  the  prevalence  of  which  at  the  Sorbonne  a 
•considerable  portion  of  cultivated  France  recently  rose  in  revolt." 


230  SECONDARY    ADMINISTRATORS 

Secondary  Administrators 

The  entire  discussion  throughout  this  and  preceding  chapters 
has  upheld  the  general  principles  of  what  is  termed  functional 
organization,  and  its  appropriate  general  policy  of  non-interference 
with  inherent  responsibility  and  properly  commensurate  authority. 
The  logical  place  and  status  of  a  business  manager  and  his  staff, 
and  of  the  registrar's  office  have  been  made  clear.  The  proper 
nature  of  the  office  of  the  deans  of  the  faculties  has  been  indicated 
or  implied  at  various  points,  but  that  important  matter  and  the 
inner  organization  of  departments  will  be  treated  more  directly 
in  the  next  chapter.  There  remain  to  be  considered  only  those 
administrative  officers  who  are  merely  direct  assistants  to  the  presi- 
dent. Secondary  administrators  of  this  kind  exist,  or  ought  to 
exist,  only  in  institutions  in  which  the  separate  location  of  dif- 
ferent parts,  or  the  magnitude  of  some  definite  division,  or  the 
amount  and  character  of  the  president's  personal  engagements,  re- 
quires such  presidential  lieutenants,  or,  in  the  last  case,  an  assist- 
ant president.  No  such  function  ought  ever  to  be  confused  with 
the  deanship  of  a  faculty.  If  officers  of  the  sort  in  question  are 
required  they  should  have  titles  that  avoid  confusion  with  positions 
properly  belonging  to  the  jurisdiction  of  faculties  or  departments. 
Usually  they  may  be  called  directors.  In  the  last  case  mentioned, 
however,  if  a  president  for  some  good  reason  needs  an  immediate 
general  assistant,  that  officer  should  be  called  Assistant  President.* 


*0n  May  19,  1913,  President  David  Starr  Jordan  of  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  University,  desiring  to  devote  himself  mainly  to  the  university's 
external  relations,  was  largely  relieved  of  the  cares  of  internal  adminis- 
tration. Dr.  J.  C.  Branner,  who  for  fifteen  years  has  been  assistant  or 
vice-president,  was  made  president,  and  Dr.  Jordan  was  made  Chancellor 
of  the  University.  Shortly  afterwards  Dr.  J.  M.  Stillman,  head  of  the 
department  of  chemistry,  was  made  vice-president.  Such  an  arrangement 
is,  of  course,  exceptional,  and  was  adopted  to  meet  special  conditions.  It 
could  be  properly  judged  only  after  close  examination  of  those  conditions 
and  the  actual  functions  and  relations  of  the  officials.  Certainly  no  such 
administrative  triumvirate  would  be  generally  advisable. 


SECONDARY  ADMINISTRATORS  231 

Confusion  of  properly  distinct  functions  and  spheres  of  authority 
almost  always  accompanies  an  official  misnomer.  Even  if  the 
original  misconception  that  led  to  the  adoption  of  an  illogical  title 
be  no  longer  shared  by  present  administrators,  the  retention  of 
the  misleading  title  will  continue  to  cause  more  or  less  disorganiz- 
ing confusion.  So  many  members  of  governing  boards  and  facul- 
ties understand  so  little  of  organization  and  government,  that  their 
conduct  and  attitudes  are  unconsciously  directed  or  affected  by 
the  legitimate  purport  of  a  title.  It  is  therefore  eminently  worth 
while  to  make  every  title  employed  in  the  institution  fit  the  scheme 
of  actual  organization. 

There  are  some  divisions  of  a  large  university  which  have  such 
manifold  external  relations,  that  for  them  special  directors  may  be 
permanently  needed  and,  perhaps,  increasingly  advantageous.  For 
instance,  some  extension  divisions,  or  the  experiment  stations  of  a 
great  college  of  agriculture,  will  usually  require  special  administra- 
tive services  that  the  president  cannot  or  is  not  in  a  position  to 
render.  Well  organized  faculties  can  best  manage  the  work  of 
instruction  and  research,  but  the  ideal  for  the  services  of  institu- 
tions of  higher  education  has  expanded  to  include  the  public  dis- 
semination of  the  results  of  science  for  practical  application.  This 
new  sphere  of  service — getting  the  knowledge  applied  which  has 
been  achieved,  and  is  stored,  as  it  were,  in  repositories  of  learning 
— is  one  in  which  administrative  direction  is  peculiarly  necessary. 
And  the  administrative  direction  needed  in  this  sphere  is  of  a  kind 
that  a  faculty  could  hardly  give.  For  example,  the  various  de- 
partments of  any  strong  school  of  agriculture  know  more  today 
than  the  farmers  of  the  country  could  be  led  in  a  century  to  apply 
or  utilize,  unless  skillful  and  persistent  and  systematic  methods  of 
dissemination  are  employed.  Highly  developed  and  vigorous  de- 
partments of  prophylactic  medicine  and  public  hygiene  would  be 
similarly  situated. 

On  the  other  hand,  proper  organization  would  enable  the  presi- 


232  SECONDARY    ADMINISTRATORS 

dent  to  fulfill  all  general  administrative  duties  without  assistance, 
and  leave  him  far  more  time  for  his  essential  and  useful  functions 
than  the  common  type  of  organization  leaves  him  with  numerous 
lieutenants.  Ordinary  schools  and  colleges,  even  if  very  large  and 
separately  located,  cause  no  inherent  need  of  directors  or  assistant 
presidents.  I  helieve  President  Schurman  is  correct  in  his  opin- 
ion :  "Probably  the  office  of  director  will  be  abolished*  as  the  col- 
leges having  such  heads  become  firmly  established  and  democrati- 
cally organized.  .  .  .  But  the  dean  as  executive  agent  of  the  fac- 
ulty is  indispensable." 

The  matter  of  college  athletics,  as  it  has  been  developed  in  the 
majority  of  ambitious  colleges,  presents  anomalies  that  make  it 
somewhat  difficult  to  place  in  respect  to  suitable  jurisdiction.  To 
one  unacquainted  with  the  conditions  it  would  seem  plain  that  the 
control  of  student  athletics  belonged  to  the  faculty,  and  that  there- 
fore a  Director  of  Athletics  should  look  immediately  to  the  Dean 
of  the  Faculty  for  the  fundamental  regulations  governing  the 
affairs  over  which  the  Director  is  commissioned  to  exercise  executive 
control.  If  this  works  well,  it  is  the  natural  status  of  a  director 
of  athletics.  It  may  be  remarked,  however,  that  if  the  external, 
public  connections  of  some  conspicuous  phases  of  the  matter  be 
such  that  a  president  is  convinced  that  they  need  to  be  under  his 
own  hand,  he  should  be  careful  to  avoid  any  confusing  interfer- 
ence. The  condition  supposed  involves  doubtless  an  exaggerated 
employment  of  so-called  "games"  for  the  amusement  of  the  public 
and  spectacular  advertising.  Perhaps  the  wiser  course  would  be  to 
let  truer  games  be  a  matter  of  athletic  sport  for  a  much  larger 


'Cornell  University  has  had  hitherto  nine  directors  of  different  colleges, 
schools,  or  divisions.  Some  of  them,  by  reason  of  the  complexity  or  ex- 
tensive external  relations  of  their  divisions  will  probably  continue  to  be 
needed.  But  future  experience  will  doubtless  find  the  offices  of  Director  of 
the  College  of  Law,  Director  of  the  College  of  Architecture,  Director  of  the 
School  of  Education,  for  instance,  to  be  inexpedient.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
Director  of  tae  College  of  Agriculture,  and  a  Director  of  the  Summer  Ses- 
sion, may  be  permanently  required. 


SECONDARY    ADMINISTRATORS  233 

number  of  the  young  men,  with  less  frequent  traveling  exhibitions. 
Nevertheless  if  the  supposed  condition  exists,  and  the  conduct  of  the 
matter  involves  such  complicated  external  relations  and  the  ex- 
penditure of  such  great  sums  of  money,  that  the  president  desires 
to  control  it,  it  might  be  best  to  have  a  Director  of  Public  Athletics 
looking  to  the  president  for  general  guidance  and  control,  and  a 
Gymnasium  Director  (or  other  appropriate  title)  looking  to  the 
faculty's  executive  officer. 

I  offer,  as  a  concluding  suggestion,  that  the  office  and  proper 
functions  of  the  president  of  a  college  or  university  are  such  that 
there  is  no  need  for  any  "acting  president,"  when  the  president 
happens  to  be  absent  from  his  desk  for  a  few  days.  Nothing  ex- 
poses more  crudely  an  arbitrary  one-man  rule,  than  the  appoint- 
ment— automatic  or  special — of  an  "acting  president,"  whenever 
the  president  takes  a  train  to  attend  a  distant  meeting  or  to  spend 
a  vacation  week.  When  the  head  of  an  executive  department  of 
the  state  government  steps  out  of  his  office,  the  public  business  may 
require  an  "Acting  Secretary  of  State,"  for  instance,  to  fall  auto- 
matically into  the  chief's  place;  but  the  president  of  a  university 
has  no  such  business.  A  trip  to  Europe,  or  a  resting  retirement 
for  several  months,  is  a  different  matter,  and  an  acting  president 
may  be  specially  appointed.  For  ordinary  brief  absences,  there 
is  no  need  of  an  acting  president.  The  organization  of  the  institu- 
tion must  be  totally  bad,  if  it  cannot  run  a  few  days  without  the 
president  at  his  desk. 


V.    THE  FACULTY. 

The  administration  of  curricula,  which  is  the  faculty's  main 
part  within  the  subject  of  this  study,  will  be  considered  in  the  next 
chapter.  In  previous  chapters  the  organic  relations  and  status  of 
the  faculty  have  been  thoroughly  discussed.  Deanships  and  the 
management  of  departments  have  been  collaterally  involved  at 
various  points,  but  a  more  direct  consideration  of  the  office  of  the 
dean  of  a  faculty,  and  of  the  internal  organization  of  a  department 
has  been  reserved  for  this  chapter.  Here,  also,  is  the  place  for 
brief  references  to  some  of  the  ideals  that  should  be  preserved  and 
enforced  by  the  faculties  of  colleges  and  universities. 

It  has  been  shown  that  a  college  must  be  built  upon  a  group  of 
professorships.  It  can  grow  from  no  other  nucleus.  The  faculty 
is  the  comparatively  continuous  body  among  all  the  component 
parts  of  the  institution.  Solidarity  and  continuity  in  the  student 
body  is  also  a  very  vital  fact,  nevertheless-  regents,  presidents,  and 
students  may  come  and  go  without  causing  essential  changes,  if 
the  nucleus  keep  its  integrity.  Its  force  and  ideals  must  persist 
through  the  slower  changes  suffered  by  it,  else  chaos  will  come, — 
to  stay  until  a  new  nucleus  becomes  steadfast  again.  Of  course, 
by  "steadfast"  I  do  not  mean  fixed,  nor  have  I  in  mind  any  sort  of 
ultra  conservatism,  but  refer  to  the  characteristic  quality  of  living 
principle  and  right  understanding  in  any  matter — it  is  not  blown 
about  by  every  puff  of  wind,  it  presses  forward  an4  changes  its 
course  only  consciously  and  in  order  to  improve.  The  vital 
importance  of  such  continuity  and  steadfastness  in  a  faculty,  im- 
poses upon  all  its  members  a  high  duty  which  is  too  often  neglected. 
The  neglect  of  that  duty  is  evidenced  wherever  it  is  distinctly  dif- 
ficult for  new  members  to  become  acquainted  with  colleagues,  and 
where  there  is  very  little  social  and  convivial  intercourse  in  con- 
genial groups.  For  if  the  rational  and  ordinary  means  to  an  end 


THE    FACULTY  235 

are  neglected  or  unknown,  the  end  will  seldom  be  otherwise  at- 
tained ;  or,  if  the  natural  manifestations  of  a  spirit  do  not  appear, 
the  spirit  is  usually  lacking.  "Good  fellowship,"  says  President 
Eliot  in  his  book  University  Administration,  "and  a  real  intellec- 
tual intimacy  among  the  teachers  of  a  university  are  in  them- 
selves great  objects.  They  create  a  good  atmosphere  for  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  whole  body  of  teachers  and  students."  He  con- 
tinues : 

"That  the  members  of  a  faculty  understand  each  other's  dispositions  and 
various  capacities  is  often  a  great  advantage  in  university  crises  or  emer- 
gencies; that  the  president  and  the  deans  should  have  the  opportunities 
which  faculty  meetings  supply  to  become  acquainted  with  the  powers  and 
characters  of  the  different  members  of  the  university  staff  is  of  primary 
importance.  .  .  . 

"In  faculty  meetings  the  different  qualities  of  the  members  who  take 
part  in  the  discussions  are  plainly  revealed.  The  whole  body  learns  that 
certain  members  are  public-spirited,  generous  of  time  and  labor,  and 
co-operative,  while  other  members  exhibit  the  opposite  qualities.  Some 
members  are  seen  to  be  clear,  keen,  and  fair  in  debate,  while  others  are 
obscure,  dull,  or  unfair;  some  members  are  modest  and  retiring,  and  yet 
ready  for  service,  while  others  are  more  forth-putting  in  talk,  but  not  so 
serviceable;  some  are  quick,  ready,  and  fertile,  while  others  are  habitually 
slow  to  speak,  and  even  tardy  in  debate,  and  yet  sound  and  influential; 
some  say  little,  but  their  opinions  are  weighty  when  expressed;  others 
talk  much  and  often,  and  nevertheless  are  influential  because  inventive 
and  suggestive.  ...  A  wise  president  will  dread  nothing  so  much  as 
an  inert  and  uninterested  faculty." 

In  spite  of  the  life  tenure  of  the  professors  in  all  universities  of 
good  repute,  a  faculty  changes  its  constituent  members  more  rap- 
idly than  is  generally  supposed.     The  larger  the  proportion  of  \J 
assistant  professors  and  instructors,  the  more  rapid  is  the  change.* 


*"It  is  not  at  all  uncommon,"  says  President  Eliot,  "for  one-fifth  of  a 
faculty  to  disappear  within  five  years.  .  .  .  There  is  no  difficulty  in 
keeping  a  faculty  young  on  the  average,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  long 
tenures  and  life-service  are  the  rule  in  well-managed  universities." 


236  THE  FACULTY 

If  its  members  pay  no  attention  to  the  duties  and  find  no  enjoyment 
in  the  pleasures  of  colleagueship,  they  will  soon  find  themselves  a 
disorganized  group — each  individual  misunderstood  and  misunder- 
standing, suspicious  and  suspected.  Under  such  conditions  the 
faculty's  corporate  action  (in  its  atmosphere  and  methods,  and  in 
the  accidental  character  of  results  unless  "cut  and  dried"  in  advance 
by  some  clique)  will  resemble  rather  the  proceedings  of  a  political 
convention,  than  the  deliberations  of  a  permanent  academic  senate 
whose  members  should  know  each  other  in  mutual  sympathy  and 
long  habit  of  co-operative  work  and  counsel,  and  who  should  be 
bound  together  by  a  common  loyalty  to  their  high  calling.  The 
Faculty  is  the  very  heart  of  the  institution,  and  it  must  be  a  kingly 
heart,  or  all  will  be  misruled.  The  government  is  on  his  shoul- 
ders. 

The  members  of  faculties  in  which  the  president  and  the  dean, 
and  committees  appointed  by  them,  'run'  everything,  will  make 
a  very  wry  face  if  more  frequent  faculty  meetings  be  suggested. 
But  that  sinister  attitude  toward  meetings  of  the  faculty  would 
soon  disappear  if  such  an  organization  as  I  have  proposed  were 
instituted.  Under  any  conditions,  however,  a  faculty  that  is  fit 
to  meet  at  all  ought  to  meet  frequently.  I  am  sure  that  President 
Eliot  has  rightly  answered  (in  part)  his  question,  "How  can  the 
functions  of  a  faculty  be  best  discharged  ?"  as  follows : 

"In  the  first  place,  by  frequent  stated  meetings  for  examining  the  condi- 
tion of  its  work,  for  hearing  reports  from  its  officers  and  committees,  and 
for  the  consideration  and  discussion  of  proposals  to  improve  its  methods. 
.  .  .  Every  faculty  has  to  keep  up  with  the  rapid  march  of  educational 
events,  and  for  this  purpose  it  must  have  frequent  stated  meetings,  and 
patient  discussion  of  new  proposals. 

"This  necessity  for  the  constant  revision  of  educational  plans,  methods, 
and  material  penetrates,  or  should  penetrate,  to  the  work  of  every  indi- 
vidual teacher  in  the  university.  ...  If  they  meet  but  seldom,  leav- 
ing to  deo,ns,  secretaries,  and  committees  all  the  routine  work  without 
demanding  of  them  incessant  improvements,  receive  from  the  members 


THE  FACULTY  237 

few  new  proposals,  and  do  their  best  to  avoid  discussion  of  those  few,  it 
is  certain  that  the  institution  in  their  charge  will  not  grow  or  thrive, 
and  will  soon  cease  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  educational  progress 
of  the  community  or  the  nation.  By  the  vitality,  inventiveness,  and  enter- 
prise of  its  faculty,  it  is  safe  to  judge  any  institution  of  learning.  Noth- 
ing can  take  the  place  of  vitality  in  a  faculty,  no  one-man  power  in  a 
president  or  dean,  no  vigor  and  ambition  in  a  board  of  trustees,  and  no 
affection  or  zeal  in  the  graduates  of  the  institution." 

The  character  of  a  faculty  and  its  attitude  toward  all  vital  activi- 
ties in  the  university  is  the  paramount  question.     The  importance 
of  right  organization  lies  in  its  bearing  on  this  main  question. 
The  only  safeguard  against  disasters  and  the  one  remedy  for  mis-  , 
takes  and  disorders  of  almost  every  sort,  is  an  intelligent  recogni-^ 
tion  of  its  responsibility  on  the  part  of  a  competent  and  resolute 
faculty. 

While  carefully  instituting  a  reorganization  calculated  to  fortify 
a  faculty  in  its  proper  functions,  President  Schurman  reminded 
that  organization  cannot  by  itself  secure  the  desired  action,  and 
that  such  action  can  be  realized  in  spite  of  improper  organization, 
if  other  conditions  within  voluntary  control  be  favorable.  Por- 
tions of  his  wise  and  expert  counsel  referring  to  the  president's  part 
have  been  given  in  the  preceding  chapter ;  the  following  suggestions 
concern  the  faculty : 

"The  end  in  view  can  be  accomplished  even  without  institutional  reor- 
ganization. Let  the  faculty  recommend  what  after  due  consideration  it 
deems  important  for  the  university  to  do  or  not  to  do,  and  so  far  at  any 
rate  as  Cornell  University  is  concerned,  not  only  the  president  but  the 
board  of  trustees  will  be  too  thankful  for  the  recommendations  to  think 
of  raising  any  question  of  jurisdiction  or  prerogative.  The  welfare,  the 
best  interest,  the  advancement  of  Cornell  University  as  an  organ  of  higher 
education  and  research  is  the  supreme  object  in  every  mind  and  heart,  and 
the  faculty  should  know  better  than  any  other  body  or  than  any  individual 
how  this  end  is  to  be  attained.  No  greater  good  could  come  to  Cornell 
University  than  a  quickening  and  deepening  of  the  faculty  sense  of 
responsibility  for  its  welfare.  Too  often  the  faculties  of  American  uni- 
versities have  rolled  all  responsibility  on  the  president  and  trustees.  .  .  . 


238  THE  DEANSHIP 

"The  one  remedy  is  cultivation  by  the  faculty  of  a  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  welfare  and  advancement  of  the  institution  and  a  readiness  to 
advise  on  all  matters  directly  or  indirectly  connected  with  the  essential 
functions  of  the  university  of  which  they  are  the  constituted  organs  and 
guardians.  .  .  .  The  report  of  the  Faculty  of  the  Graduate  School  pub- 
lished at  the  end  of  the  year  1909-10  is  an  admirable  example  of  faculty 
co-operation  in  determining  fundamental  policies  for  the  university.  By 
such  action  the  faculty  asserts  itself,  even  under  the  present  corporate 
organization  of  the  university,  as  a  potent  element  in  its  government.  And 
the  feeling  that  the  university  is  their  university,  that  they  are  influential 
in  its  control  and  that  they  themselves  are  free  and  independent  in  their 
several  positions,  enhances  the  happiness  of  professors  and  stimulates  them 
to  their  largest  and  best  endeavors  as  teachers  and  investigators.  .  .  . 

"A  faculty  will  not  be  dominated  or  over-ridden  which  justly  asserts 
itself.  Yet  not  only  trustees  but  administrative  officers  are  likely  to 
remain;  the  positions  are  necessary  or  at  any  rate  appropriate  organs  of 
the  institution.  Possibly  the  headship  of  the  department  may  disappear, 
and  a  committee  consisting  of  all  the  members  of  the  department  take 
its  place,  as  has  now  been  done  in  several  of  the  departments  of  Cornell 
University.  Probably  the  office  of  director  will  be  abolished  as  the  col- 
leges having  such  heads  become  firmly  established  and  democratically 
organized,  and  the  work  of  the  head  is  less  largely  devoted  to  non- 
academic  objects.  But  the  dean  as  executive  agent  of  the  faculty  is 
indispensable;  and  it  will  be  due  to  the  laches  of  the  members  of  the 
faculty  themselves  if  the  dean  ever  exercises  their  powers.  It  is  for  them 
to  keep  the  institution  democratic.  And  nowhere  else  is  democracy  so 
important  as  in  the  university.  For  the  professor's  function  is  an  intel- 
lectual one,  and  freedom  is  the  law  and  life  of  the  spirit." 

The  Deanship 

If  there  were  no  weakness  and  no  neglect  on  the  part  of  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty,  the  sheer  weight  of  its  moral  influence  might 
protect  the  institution  against  functional  usurpations  by  regents, 
presidents,  deans,  or  any  other  officials.  But  it  would  be  unrea- 
sonable to  hope  for  such  perfection:  the  tendencies  of  wrong 
organization  ought  to  be  avoided  with  diligent  care  by  correcting 
the  organization. 


THE    DEANSHIP  239 

The  office  of  dean  is  comparatively  new  in  American  universi- 
ties. Less  than  fifty  years  ago,  there  was  only  one  dean  (of  the 
medical  faculty)  in  Harvard  University.  There  are  now  nine  or 
ten  deans  in  that  university.  The  dean  of  a  faculty  is  everywhere  V1 
the  executive  officer  of  his  faculty.  His  primary  function  is  to 
see  to  the  execution  of  all  the  ordinances  and  regulations  enacted  V 
by  the  faculty  for  the  administration  of  its  curriculum  and  the 
government  of  students.  Yet  almost  everywhere  the  faculty's  dean 
is  nominated  or  appointed  by  the  president,  and  the  dean  has 
ordinarily  become  a  direct  subordinate  of  the  president.  This 
secondary  relation,  this  function  of  president's  lieutenant,  obscures 
the  original  obligation  of  the  dean.  He  tends  to  become  the  presi- 
dent's man,  not  the  faculty's  representative.  The  most  sincere 
individual  strives  in  vain  to  fill  acceptably  such  a  two-faced  office. 
It  is  bad  for  a  faculty  to  suffer  dictatorial  interference  from  the 
president;  it  is  utterly  demoralizing  if  its  own  executive  officer  is 
seduced  by  the  organization  of  the  institution  into  becoming  an 
extraneous  authority.  As  a  practical  issue,  the  undefined  sway  of 
deans  exercising  powers  vaguely  delegated*  from  the  president, 
is  to  the  professoriate  the  most  vexatious  and  discouraging  feature 
of  university  government  in  this  country. 

Consultations  between  the  deans  and  the  president  ought  to  be 
full,  frank,  and  frequent;  but  each  dean  should  be  the  executive 
officer  of  his  faculty,  and  nothing  else.  And,  as  President  Schur- 
man  says,  "the  time  ha-s  come  when  the  right  of  the  faculty  to  / 
select  its  own  chief  officer 'should  be  recognized  and  confirmed" 
And  the  authority  of  a  faculty  to  remove  its  dean  (however 
rarely  to  be  exerted)  ought  to  be  recognized, — just  as  the  govern- 
ing board  has  authority,  if  need  be,  to  remove  the  president. 

The  title  of  a  dean  should  never  run  "Dean  of  the  College  of  Arts 
and  Sciences,"  "Dean  of  the  School  of  Law,"  etc.;  but  the  title 
should  be  "Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  the  College  of  Arts  and 

*E.  g.,  "Next  in  authority  to  the  president  come  the  several  deans. 
.  .  .  The  duties  of  the  Dean  of  the  Faculty  are  in  the  absence  of  the 
president  to  represent  him  in  appropriate  matters,  .  .  ." — Catalog  Uni- 
versity of  Texas,  1911-12. 


240  THE    DEANSHIP 

Sciences,"  "Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  the  School  of  Law,"  etc.  If 
one  who  knows  the  institutions  will  read  their  catalogs,  he  will  find 
some  significant  correspondences  between  organic  facts  and  the 
practice  in  regard  to  these  names. 

President  Eliot,  of  course,  advocates  the  appointment  of  deans 
by  the  president,  nevertheless  he  warns :  "A  wise  faculty  will,  how- 
ever, keep  in  its  own  hands  a  firm  control  over  its  officers  and  com- 
mittees, and  will  itself  lay  down  all  the  general  lines  of  educational 
policy."  But  it  seems  to  me  vain  to  advise  or  to  cherish  hope  for 
any  such  practice  by  a  faculty,  if  the  president  appoints  all  "its 
officers  and  committees";  they  will  be  practically  not  its  but  his. 
If  the  primary  means  of  control  are  usurped,  is  it  reasonable  to 
expect  the  faculty  to  "keep  a  firm  control"  ?  I  beg  to  direct  atten- 
tion to  a  general  incongruity  between  President  Eliot's  magnani- 
mous sentiments  and  the  theories  of  organization  he  advocates.  He 
holds  that  the  president  should  be  chairman  of  the  governing  board, 
and  that,  "in  the  board  of  trustees  and  in  all  the  faculties  the 
president  should  invariably  name  all  committees,  never  allowing 
ihis  important  function  to  be  usurped  by  any  private  member  of 
these  boards."  Every  feature  and  detail  of  organization  he  rec- 
ommends tends  to  establish  a  one-man  power;  yet  he  frequently 
expresses  sentiments  nobly  contrary  to  such  theories.  He  is  un- 
doubtedly a  benevolent  despot,  whose  personal  administration  ob- 
viated the  characteristic  consequence?  of  the  form  of  organization 
he  administered.  But  faults  in  organization  lie  in  wait  like  pit- 
falls, forcing  the  knowing  into  devious  ways  and  ever  ready  to 
engulf  the  unwary.  After  asserting  that  the  president  of  a 
university  ought  to  have  autocratic  power, — by  demanding  every 
possible  organic  arrangement  for  conferring  such  power  upon  him, 
he,  for  instance,  will  presently  continue : 

"The  president  of  a  university  should  never  exercise  an  autocratic  or 
one-man  power.  He  should  be  often  an  inventing  and  animating  force, 
and  often  a  leader;  but  not  a  ruler  or  autocrat.  His  success  will  be  due 
more  to  powers  of  exposition  and  persuasion  combined  with  persistent 
industry,  than  to  any  force  of  will  or  habit  of  command.  Indeed,  one- 


ORGANIZATION   VS.    ADMINISTRATION  241 

man    power    is   always   objectionable    in   a   university,   whether   lodged   in 
president,  secretary  of  the  trustees,  dean,  or  head  of  department." 

If  the  proper  distinction  between  organization  and  administra- 
tion be  kept  in  view,  students  of  college  and  university  manage- 
ment would  be  greatly  assisted.     Organization  establishes  the  func- 
tional relations  of  all  parts  of  the  institution  by  fundamental  ordi- 
nances which  provide  potentialities  of  action.  Administration  seeks 
to  get  out  of  each  part  the  most  beneficial  exercise  of  its  function. 
Organization  deals  with  the  abstract;  it  seeks  permanent  condi- 
tions; it  cannot,  or  should  not,  consider  persons  or  particular  exi- 
gencies.    Administration  deals  with  the  concrete;  it  puts  a  soul 
into  the  body.     It  would  be  profitless  to  argue  which  is  the  more 
important.     In  a  short  view  covering  only  one  man's  life-time, 
administration  appears  to  be  the  more  important;  for  the  soul  it 
infuses  makes  so  plainly  for  weal  or  for  woe, — it  may  be  prompt  and 
vigorous,  or  faltering  and  weak;  kind  and  wise,  or  selfish  and 
blind;  faithful  and  just,  or  false  and  unjust;  in  brief,  the  admin- 
istration  within  any  organization  may  be  sane  or  insane.     But 
when  one  takes  the  long  and  comprehensive  view,  the  life-time  of 
any  man  or  group  of  contemporary  men  is  seen  to  be  a  small  span 
in  the  life  of  the  institution,  and  the  tendencies  produced  by  per- 
sistent organic  conditions  appear  to  be  the  more  potent  factor.     It 
is  somewhat  like  arguing  about  the  relative  importance  of  nurture 
and  heredity.     The  debate,  as  such,  is  futile, — except  as  it  might 
teach  wherein  and  why  each  is  important.     Both  are  vitally  im- 
portant; both  deserve  more  thorough  study  than  either  has  ever 
received.     Organization,  however,  is  much  less  regarded  and  much 
less  understood  than  administration.     A  good    heart    and    high 
moral  ideals  go  far  toward  good  administration ;  analytical  thought 
and  good  judgment  in  addition  are  required  to  provide  good  organi- 
zation.    Contrary  to  the  testimony  of  many,  I  have  found  in  my 
experience  of  life  a  hundred  good  hearts  to  one  good  head.     There 
is  evil  affection  and  perverse  intention  in  this  world,  but  far  more 
iaulty  thought  and  weak  will.     The  poet  is  right— 


242  THE   DEANSHIP 

"The  poor  inhabitant  below 

Was  quick  to  learn  and  wise  to  know, 

And  keenly  felt  the  friendly  glow, 

And  softer  flame; 
But  thoughtless  follies  laid  him  low, 

And  stained  his  name." 

I  repeat,  if  the  student  of  the  literature  of  this  subject  can 
hold  in  mind  the  difference  between  organization  and  administra- 
tion, he  will  be  able  to  take  from  anv  writer  what  is  good  on  the 
one  side,  while  rejecting  what  is  bad  on  the  other.  For  instance, 
in  my  opinion,  almost  everything  President  Eliot  says  about  admin- 
istration is  right,  and  almost  everything  involving  organization 
advocated  by  him  is  wrong.  Of  course,  I  might  be  mistaken  on 
either  score,  still  the  matters  are  totally  distinct.  From  the  fol- 
lowing passage  in  University  Administration  his  opinions  about  a 
dean's  organic  relation  to  the  president  are  eliminated ;  the  remain- 
der is  an  acute  and  helpful  statement  concerning  a  dean's  admin- 
istrative duties  and  the  "qualities  of  a  good  dean" : 

"At  the  head  of  each  department  [i.  e.,  school  or  college]  a  dean  is 
ordinarily  placed,  who  is  its  chief  administrative  officer.  In  most  cases 
he  is  also  a  professor  and  an  active  teacher,  who  gives  part  of  his  time 
to  administrative  work.  .  .  . 

"The  functions  of  a  dean  relate  almost  exclusively  to  his  own  depart- 
ment of  the  university;  but  within  that  department  they  are  compre- 
hensive. .  .  .  He  is  responsible  for  the  preparation  and  orderly  con- 
duct of  its  faculty  business,  and  for  the  discipline  of  its  students.  In  the 
undergraduate  departments  much  of  his  time  is  given  to  intercourse  with 
students  who  need  advice  or  pecuniary  aid,  or  who  neglect  their  oppor- 
tunities, or  become  dangerous  to  their  associates.  For  the  younger  pro- 
fessors and  inexperienced  teachers  in  his  department,  the  dean  is  a  coun- 
selor and  friend.  .  .  . 

"The  dean  of  a  large  department  requires  a  good  deal  of  clerical  assist- 
ance; because  the  records  of  the  students  under  his  charge  must  be  kept 
with  accuracy.  The  students'  records  kept  in  a  dean's  office  are  not  only 
indispensable  while  the  students  are  members  of  the  university,  but  are 
also  in  many  cases  useful  in  after  years;  although  the  record  of  each 


SECRETARIES  243 

individual  is  held  to  be  confidential,  there  are  many  proper  uses  to  which 
they  can  be  put  by  request  of  relatives,  friends  or  biographers.  .  .  . 

"Deans  may  best  be  persons  who  are  capable  of  working  cordially  with 
the  president,  although  their  functions  are  in  many  respects  independent 
of  him.  Much  of  the  work  of  a  dean  is  done  in  conformity  with  rules 
laid  down  by  the  faculty,  or  with  well-understood,  predetermined  policies 
of  the  university,  and  it  is  only  on  matters  for  the  settlement  of  which 
he  finds  no  such  guidance,  or  on  new  pecuniary  problems,  or  on  difficult 
cases,  that  a  dean  will  ordinarily  consult  the  president. 

"It  is  obvious  that  for  the  discharge  of  these  functions  a  dean  needs 
good  judgment,  quick  insight,  patience,  and  a  strong  liking  for  helpful, 
sympathetic  intercourse  with  young  men.  The  men  who  are  most  suc- 
cessful in  the  work  of  a  dean  are  neither  dry  nor  gushing,  neither  rude 
nor  soft;  they  are  alert,  attentive,  sympathetic,  and  hopeful.  In  conduct- 
ing the  business  of  his  office  a  dean  needs  the  usual  qualities  of  a  good 
administrative  officer,  namely:  thoroughness  in  inquiry,  promptness  and 
clearness  in  decision,  and  assiduity.  In  manner  and  address  he  ought  to 
be  frank,  considerate,  and  cordial.  He  ought  to  inspire  confidence  and  win 
regard,  and  be  capable  of  exerting  a  good  influence  without  visible  effort, 
and  without  self-consciousness. 

"In  a  large  department,  containing  many  students,  the  work  of  a  dean 
makes  a  serious  demand  upon  a  conscientious  man  whose  feelings  are 
quick;  so  that  deans  are  often  compelled  to  retire  from  service  in  conse- 
quence of  the  incessant  drain  on  their  sympathies,  and  the  exhausting 
nature  of  parts  of  their  work.  One  of  the  most  trying  parts  is  the  inter- 
course with  anxious,  dissatisfied,  or  unintelligent  parents.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  no  part  of  university  work  which  brings  to  the  faithful 
worker  a  stronger  sense  of  being  useful,  or  more  durable  satisfactions. 
His  personal  contacts  with  young  men  are  numerous  and  intimate.  He 
often  knows  that  he  has  done  good  to  people  in  anxiety  or  trouble,  and 
as  the  years  go  by  he  experiences  many  of  the  legitimate  rewards  of 
bringing  help  at  critical  moments  in  other  people's  lives." 

Faculty  Secretaries 

The  following  admirable  statement  by  President  Eliot  expresses 
all  that  need  be  said  about  the  recording  secretary  of  a  faculty : 
"The  function  of  the  secretary  of  a  faculty  is  by  no  means  unim- 


244  PUBLICATIONS 

portant.  The  history  of  a  university  may  best  be  read  in  the  rec- 
ords of  its  board  of  trustees  and  its  faculties ;  for  the  main  steps  of 
its  progress  are  there  recorded.  The  secretary  of  a  faculty,  like  an 
administration  secretary,  needs  a  capacity  to  grasp  quickly  the 
thoughts  of  other  people  and  reduce  them  to  clear  and  precise 
written  form.  A  secretary  who  can  pick  the  kernel  out  of  a  good 
deal  of  discursive  chaff,  or  express  concisely  the  result  of  an  in- 
volved debate,  will  be  likely  to  make  himself  very  useful.  If  he 
can  do  those  things,  and  is  fair  and  diligent,  he  may  be  a  quiet 
man  of  infrequent  speech,  and  yet  have  a  strong  influence  for 
good.  If  he  possesses  also  some  gift  of  speech  and  some  charm  of 
style,  and  a  strong  memory,  his  serviceableness  will  be  greatly  en- 
hanced." 

There  are  other  affairs  properly  within  the  jurisdiction  of  facul- 
ties for  which  special  secretaries  may  be  advantageous.  Such  mat- 
ters are  commonly  attended  to  by  committees.  There  are  publica- 
tions, for  example,  of  a  kind  that  should  be  controlled  by  the  fac- 
ulty, being  essentially  distinct  from  the  "publicity  bureau"  under 
the  president's  control,  mentioned  on  page  182.  These  affairs  may 
grow  to  such  proportions  that  no  committee,  even  by  sacrificing 
an  inordinate  amount  of  time,  can  manage  them  satisfactorily.  If 
so,  a  secretary  with  suitable  talents  and  attainments,  giving  his 
entire  time,  would  be  more  efficient,  and  the  arrangement  would  be 
economical  although  the  salary  of  an  assistant  or  adjunct  professor 
be  paid.  This  secretary  should  be  responsible  to  the  general  fac- 
ulty. Questions  would  arise  as  to  whether  some  particular  matter 
should  be  handled  by  the  faculty's  secretary  of  publications  or 
by  the  publicity  bureau  of  the  general  administration,  but  ordinary 
cooperation  between  the  two  offices  would  usually  settle  them,  and 
the  president  could  decide  any  doubtful  point.  President  Eliot 
describes  the  work  in  question  as  follows: 


ACADEMIC    ENDORSEMENTS  245 

"Every  vigorous  university  issues  in  these  days  a  large  number  of 
periodical  publications,  including  catalogues,  reports,  and  announcements, 
and  also  a  considerable  number  of  literary  and  scientific  publications  such 
as  annals  or  memoirs  of  observatories  and  museums,  theses  or  essays 
produced  by  the  teachers  and  graduate  students  of  the  university,  contribu- 
tions from  the  various  laboratories,  syllabuses  of  lectures  and  laboratory 
courses,  so-called  studies  in  classics,  history,  and  economics,  and  collections 
of  examination  papers.  These  various  publications  are  issued  in  a  steady 
stream  throughout  the  year,  and  a  competent  agent  must  be  employed  to 
superintend  the  work  of  printing  and  issuing  them.  This  work  needs  to 
be  done  with  accuracy  and  efficiency;  it  affects  every  teacher  and  student 
in  the  university,  and  many  of  its  future  members.  Since  all  the  strong 
American  universities  have  undertaken  a  great  deal  of  new  work  within 
the  last  twenty  years,  it  is  necessary  to  bring  this  new  work  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  graduates,  teachers,  parents,  and  pupils  at  school.  The  distribu- 
tion of  this  information  must  be  as  wide  as  the  country;  for  the  stronger 
universities  are  now  resorted  to  from  many  parts  of  the  United  States, 
or  indeed,  from  all  parts." 

I  mention.,  in  contrast,  another  matter  which  careful  organiza- 
tion would  not  put  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  faculty.  If  a 
students'  aid  bureau  be  maintained,  it  should,  in  my  judgment,  be 
an  office  in  the  sphere  of  the  business  manager.  Consultation  with 
the  deans  would  often  be  required,  but  such  an  enterprise  is  essen- 
tially a  part  of  the  general  business  management  of  the  institu- 
tion. The  dean  of  the  general  faculty  ought  not  to  be  burdened 
with  its  details.  The  aid  extended  by  such  a  bureau  may  include 
both  loans  and  information  about  miscellaneous  employment  during 
collegiate  residence;  but  it  ought  not  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
professional  (i.  e.,  scholarly)  employment  either  during  residence 
or  after  leaving  college. 

On  the  other  hand,  recommendation  for  academic  engagements 
is  a  prerogative  (if  deserved,  an  obligation)  of  members  of  the  fac- 
ulty. In  addition  to  individual  obligations,  the  faculty  may  deal 
with  this  matter  in  a  systematic  way;  but,  in  that  case,  there  is  no 
occasion  for  interdicting  independent  recommendations  by  members 


246  LIBRARIES    AND    MUSEUMS 

of  the  faculty, — a  crude  impertinence  that  has  been  perpetuated  by 
some  faculties  through  which  committee  reports  are  'railroaded' 
over  the  discouraged  protests  of  members  who  understand  the  pro- 
prieties of  life  and  professional  conduct.  There  is  a  legitimate 
demand  in  all  large  universities  for  an  office  in  which  information 
about  inquiries,  most  frequently  from  secondary  schools,  are  made 
available  for  students  seeking  such  positions,  and  by  which  state- 
ments of  academic  record  and  endorsements  may  be  forwarded  to 
the  inquiring  correspondents.  Such  an  office  decently  and  relia- 
bly conducted  may  be  very  serviceable.  A  committee  of  the  fac- 
ulty, with  special  secretary  should  conduct  it. 

Libraries  and  Museums 

There  is  much  administrative  work  connected  with  libraries  and 
museums,  and  also  with  some  laboratories.  The  heads  of  such 
parts  of  a  college  or  university  are  usually  called  directors;  but 
such  officers  have  a  different  function  from  that  of  the  directors  of 
large  schools  or  colleges  in  a  university,  who  are  simply  assistants 
to  the  president.*  The  latter  sort  of  directors  are  administrators, 
secondary  to  the  president,  and  are  required  only  when  the  magni- 
tude and  complexity  of  the  institution  renders  it  necessary  for  the 
president  to  have  such  lieutenants.  Libraries  and  museums,  on  the 
other  hand,  should  have  the  same  status  in  the  institution  as  other 
scholarly  departments.  Their  "directors"  should  be  simply  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty.  The  only  difference  between  a  library  or  a 
museum  and  other  departments  within  the  faculty  that  need  be 
considered  here,  lies  in  the  facts  that  the  former  seldom  has  or 
requires  more  than  one  man  of  first  rank,  and  that  the  affairs  of  a 
library  or  museum  require  a  kind  of  authority  in  that  ranking 
officer  over  assistants  such  as  is  neither  needed  nor  suitable  in  an 
ordinary  department  of  instruction.  I  believe  an  ordinary  depart- 
ment acts  best  as  a  committee  of  the  whole,  electing  its  own  chair- 


'See  page  230  et  sq. 


DEPARTMENT   ORGANIZATION 

man.  The  director  of  a  library  or  museum  should  doubtless  be 
appointed  as  such  by  the  regents — of  course,  like  every  other  mem- 
ber of  the  faculty,  on  the  president's  nomination,  the  difference 
being  that  for  the  department  of  history,  for  instance,  the  president 
should  nominate  merely  professors  and  instructors  in  history,  leav- 
ing them  to  choose  the  chairman  of  their  department. 

I  have  already  pointed  out  the  propriety  and  the  probable  need 
of  a  director  (in  the  sense  of  an  administrator  secondary  to  the 
president)  of  agricultural  experiment  stations.  I  add  here  that 
ordinary  laboratories,  such  as  those  of  the  departments  of  physics, 
chemistry,  zoology,  botany,  etc.,  do  not  need  directors  of  that 
sort.  If  such  a  laboratory  be  so  complex  that  the  president  deems 
it  best  not  to  leave  its  direction  to  the  internal  organization  of  its 
department,  a  director  may  be  appointed  by  the  regents;  but  his 
position  should  be  merely  a  professorship  in  the  department,  with 
only  the  authority  necessary  to  discharge  his  special  function.  He 
ought  not  to  be  an  administrative  officer  looking  directly  to  the 
president;  but  a  member  of  the  faculty  responsible  to  his  depart- 
ment and  to  his  faculty. 

Department  Organization 

In  preceding  chapters  it  has  been  brought  out  in  various  connec- 
tions that  the  work  for  which  colleges  and  universities  are  insti- 
tuted is  performed  in  the  departments;  and  their  relations  to  each 
other  and  to  the  entire  institution  have  been  considered  in  connec- 
tion with  the  budget,  and  at  other  points.  The  nature  of  its  func- 
tion makes  a  department  a  true  unit,  yet  this  unitary  element  of 
the  whole  organism  is  internally  complex.  Its  inner  organiza- 
tion must  be  considered.  How  that  organization  may  affect  the 
workers  in  the  department  is  a  fundamental  question.  I  cannot 
do  better  than  offer  the  following  condensation  of  a  paper  on  "De- 
partmental Organization,"  read  less  than  two  years  ago  before 
the  National  Association  of  State  Universities  by  one  of  the  wisest 


248  DEPARTMENT    ORGANIZATION 

and  most  truly  expert  administrators  in  this  (or  any  other)  coun- 
try, President  Albert  Ross  Hill : 

"In  a  large  university  faculty  it  becomes  practically  necessary  to  make 
a  division  into  departments  by  subjects,  each  department  including  the 
teachers  of  that  subject.  These  teachers  all  know  much  about  one  an- 
other's work,  and  constitute  a  group  with  homogeneous  interests  and  sim- 
ilar aims.  .  .  .  They  can  readily  discuss  within  the  department  the 
best  methods  of  instruction  for  use  in  treating  their  subject,  the  complete- 
ness or  incompleteness  of  the  courses  offered,  the  expediency  of  changing 
courses,  of  alternating  some  of  them  from  year  to  year,  of  exchanging 
courses  from  time  to  time  among  members  of  the  department,  etc. 

"How  best  to  organize  such  a  department  so  as  to  secure  co-operation 
and  unity  of  action  .  .  .  and  to  develop  initiative  and  a  feeling  of 
responsibility  on  the  part  of  all  the  teachers  of  the  department,  in  short, 
how  to  organize  a  department  faculty  so  as  to  make  it  the  most  effective 
educational  agency  possible  within  the  institution  is  the  problem  of  this 
paper.  And  the  thesis  proposed  for  discussion  is,  that  the  system  having 
a  chairman  of  a  department,  with  all  its  teachers,  especially  all  its  teachers 
of  professorial  rank,  responsible  for  the  efficiency  of  the  department,  is 
better  than  the  one  in  more  common  use — that  of  having  a  head  of  each 
department  with  power  to  fix  schedules,  alternate  courses,  determine  pol- 
icies, etc.,  without  the  necessity  of  consulting  other  teachers  in  the  depart- 
ment. .  .  . 

"The  type  of  organization  quite  common  today  is  based  upon  the  notion 
that  only  one  man  should  have  anything  to  do  with  the  policies  and  the 
administration  of  a  department,  and  that  all  other  teachers  in  the  depart- 
ment are  to  be  regarded  as  his  assistants.  This  paper  is  meant  to  voice 
a  protest  against  this  type  of  departmental  organization.  Instead  of  it, 
the  proposal  is  made  that  each  department  shall  have  a  chairman  to 
attend  to  the  routine  work — if  the  department  is  not  large  enough  to 
require  a  secretary  also, — to  bring  the  interests  of  the  subject  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  general  administration  of  the  university,  etc.,  but  without 
authority  to  determine  policies,  fix  schedules,  and  the  like,  except  after 
full  discussion  and  vote  by  all  teachers  of  professorial  rank  in  the  depart- 
ment. .  .  . 

"Among  the  advantages  I  see  in  such  an  organization  are  the  following: 
"1.     It  is    consistent   with   the    organization   of   the    larger    groups    of 


DEPARTMENT   ORGANIZATION  249 

teachers  to  which  the  department  faculties  belong.  .  .  .  They  can  vote 
on  all  questions  of  university  policy,  and  on  matters  affecting  the  interests 
of  the  school  or  college  to  which  their  work  especially  belongs.  Why.  then, 
should  they  not  have  a  vote  in  matters  affecting  the  interests  or  policies 
of  the  department  in  which  their  courses  are  offered,  and  with  whose 
subject-matter  they  are  supposed  to  be  primarily  concerned? 

"2.  It  would  tend  to  bring  out  in  departmental  discussions  every  edu- 
cational opinion  or  viewpoint,  and  all  inventiveness  regarding  methods  of 
teaching  and  administration,  to  the  enlightenment  of  all  the  members  and 
to  the  benefit  of  the  entire  university.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
all  wisdom  in  a  department  centers  in  its  head  or  chairman.  His  admin- 
istrative or  executive  ability  may  have  won  him  his  position;  but  in 
scholarship,  educational  insight,  and  ideals,  he  may  be  inferior  to  other 
professors  of  the  same  department. 

"3.  It  would  tend  to  give  each  teacher  of  professorial  rank  a  feeling 
of  responsibility  for  the  work  of  the  department  as  a  whole,  that  cannot 
be  expected  of  him  when  all  matters  except  those  affecting  the  conduct 
of  his  own  courses  are  settled  for  him  by  a  colleague  designated  'the  head 
of  the  department.' 

"4.  It  would  tend  to  encourage  a  loyalty  to  the  department  and  to  the 
institution  on  the  part  of  every  teacher  on  the  permanent  staff,  which  is 
a  highly  important  factor  in  the  success  of  a  university.  Not  much  in 
this  direction  can  be  expected  of  a  teacher  who  has  no  authority,  no 
responsibility,  and  no  freedom  aside  from  the  conduct  of  the  few  courses 
that  he  himself  teaches,  courses  that  are  perhaps  assigned  to  him  against 
his  will  by  a  superior  officer  of  instruction. 

"5.  It  would  tend  to  set  free  every  teacher's  power  of  initiative,  and 
all  his  inventiveness  regarding  methods  of  instruction,  the  aims  and  ideals 
of  the  department,  etc.,  and  would  thus  make  him  a  much  more  efficient 
teacher,  and  make  the  department  a  better  educational  instrument  in  the 
realization  of  the  educational  aims  of  the  entire  university. 

"6.  It  would  give  greater  essential  harmony  in  departmental  effort. 
The  harmony  which  comes  from  enforced  co-operation  cannot  be  half  so 
effective  as  that  which  arises  from  the  voluntary  co-operation  of  a  number 
of  free  personalities,  when  educational,  instead  of  business,  effort  is  at 
stake.  In  fact,  directorial  methods  among  university  professors  cannot 
produce  real  harmony  at  all;  and  the  system  of  department  headships  is 


250  DEPARTMENT   ORGANIZATION 

always  liable  to  introduce  such  methods.  The  surest  safeguard  is  to  be 
found  in  the  committee  system  of  departmental  organization. 

"7.  The  committee  system  gives  greater  flexibility  of  organization,  and 
provides  better  for  the  growth  and  improvement  of  the  teaching  force  in 
any  department.  New  professors  can  be  introduced  into  the  department 
without  subordinating  them  to  some  one,  perhaps  of  inferior  ability, 
already  on  the  staff,  and  without  the  necessity  of  subordinating  the  senior 
professors  to  them.  In  fact,  this  system  will  eliminate  many  of  the  occa- 
sions for  dropping  professors  from  the  staff,  as  teachers  of  professorial 
rank  who  have  already  served  the  university  for  a  number  of  years  can 
usually  be  assigned  important  functions  in  the  departments;  provided 
they  are  not  department  heads  who  can  block  all  progress  or  force  a 
situation  which  calls  for  their  dismissal. 

"8.  It  would  prevent  members  of  the  faculty  from  getting  the  notion 
that  the  university  is  primarily  a  business  corporation,  to  be  managed 
after  business  methods,  and  that  the  man  held  in  greatest  esteem  is  the 
one  who  can  do  administrative  work  rather  than  teach  and  investigate. 
It  would  thus  tend  to  improve  the  educational  ideals  of  the  entire  teach- 
ing force. 

"9.  Experience  seems  to  indicate  that  the  system  works  better  than  the 
old  one,  and  that  the  advantages  already  mentioned  belong  to  it.  Harvard 
has  followed  the  system  for  a  long  time.  Wisconsin  has  used  it  in  the 
faculty  of  arts  and  sciences.  Missouri  has  gradually  adopted  it,  first,  in 
the  case  of  departments  where  vacant  headships  arose;  and  finally,  after 
discussion  and  vote  by  the  entire  faculty,  it  has  been  unanimously  adopted 
throughout  the  entire  university. 

"In  regard  to  the  operation  of  the  committee  system,  a  few  questions 
will  naturally  arise  that  may  call  for  brief  discussion: 

"1.  How  are  the  chairmen  to  be  designated?  Should  they  be  appointed 
by  the  governing  board,  the  president,  or  other  administrative  officer,  or 
should  they  be  elected  by  vote  of  the  teachers  of  professorial  rank  in  the 
department?  The  chief  danger  I  see  in  the  latter  policy  is  that  some 
wire-pulling  may  be  indulged  in  among  members  of  the  department,  and 
that  some  tendency  may  here  and  there  show  itself  in  the  direction  of 
honoring  some  colleague,  who  is  felt  to  be  entitled  to  the  chairmanship 
because  of  priority  of  appointment,  or  the  like.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
members  of  a  department  ought  to  know  one  another  better  than  the 


DEPAETMENT   ORGANIZATION  251 

administrative  officers  know  them,  and  wisdom  in  selection  ought  to 
develop  with  the  exercise  of  the  function.  .  .  .  Furthermore,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  the  chairmanship  of  a  department  organized  under 
the  committee  system  will  not  likely  be  coveted  by  ambitious  men  as  much 
as  the  headships  have  often  been,  especially  where  the  latter,  as  is  com- 
monly the  case,  involve  additional  salary. 

"2.  For  how  long  a  period  should  the  appointments  be  made?  When 
once  the  committee  system  is  fully  established  and  understood  by  the 
faculty,  I  do  not  see  that  this  question  is  a  very  vital  one.  Changing 
chairmen  from  time  to  time  would  tend  to  emphasize  the  purely  adminis- 
trative and  executive  nature  of  their  functions  and  prevent  the  chairman- 
ship from  becoming  a  headship  again.  But  there  is  sometimes  only  one 
good  man  for  the  position  in  a  department.  .  .  .  On  general  principles, 
the  following  seems  to  me  true:  the  administrative  work  of  a  president 
or  dean  of  a  large  college  or  school  is  so  great  as  to  demand  practically 
his  entire  time  and  to  make  it  necessary  that  he  regard  it  as  his  life 
work,  in  short,  that  he  make  administration  his  profession;  but  the  admin- 
istrative work  of  a  single  department  is  not  of  sufficient  importance  or 
extent  to  demand  this  of  the  chairman,  and  permanency  of  tenure  does 
not  seem  necessary.  Certainly  during  the  transition  period,  when  adopt- 
ing the  committee  system  for  the  first  time,  it  would  be  best  not  to  permit 
one  professor  to  act  as  chairman  of  a  department  for  many  years  con- 
secutively. 

"3.  I  have  not  attempted  to  deal  with  the  strictly  business  features 
of  a  department,  such  as  purchase  of  laboratory  supplies,  care  of  univer- 
sity property,  and  similar  phases  of  university  housekeeping.  But  even 
in  the  purchase  of  laboratory  supplies  I  should  regard  it  as  unfortunate 
to  have  one  man,  as  director  of  the  laboratories  of  a  department,  author- 
ized to  spend  all  the  funds  of  the  department  without  consulting  his  col- 
leagues. The  same  is  true  of  the  purchase  of  books,  etc.,  in  the  depart- 
ment library.  Without  further  discussion  of  this  special  phase  of  the 
subject,  however,  I  may  remark  that  I  should  think  reasonable  perma- 
nency of  appointment  would  be  desirable  in  the  directorship  of  a  labora- 
tory, and  also  that  the  appointment,  involving  as  it  does  the  expenditure 
of  the  institution's  funds,  should  be  made  by  the  governing  board. 

"All  further  details  I  leave  to  be  brought  out  in  the  course  of  the 
discussion. 


252  DEPARTMENT   ORGANIZATION 

"VICE-PRESIDENT  CARRUTH :  Might  it  not  be  well  sometimes  to  appoint 
one  of  the  younger  men  as  chairman?" 

"PRESIDENT  HILL:  I  think  it  would  be  advisable  in  some  cases.  One 
of  the  ablest  men  in  our  faculty  induced  me  last  spring  to  appoint  an 
assistant  professor  as  chairman  of  his  department,  and  he  is  as  efficient 
in  the  position  as  can  be  wished  for." 

"PRESIDENT  VENABLE:  I  have  had  much  difficulty  with  the  younger 
men  in  the  departments,  the  heads  of  departments  not  always  looking  after 
them  properly.  Would  this  young  chairman  President  Hill  speaks  of  feel 
that  he  could  look  after  the  men  working  in  his  department  and  see  that 
their  duties  are  properly  discharged,  or  are  they  under  him?  In  what 
way  is  efficiency  secured?" 

"PRESIDENT  HILL:  It  happens  that  in  this  particular  department  there 
are  two  professors  and  two  assistant  professors,  and  no  instructors.  But, 
as  a  general  rule,  the  whole  group  of  professors  and  assistant  professors 
should  be  held  responsible  for  the  work  of  the  instructors,  and  should  be 
looked  to  for  advice  regarding  their  reappointment  or  promotion.  Indeed, 
I  received  a  report  last  year  of  a  discussion  between  the  professors  and 
the  assistant  professors  in  one  department  in  regard  to  the  instructors 
in  another  department  that,  I  think,  was  much  more  helpful  than  any- 
thing I  might  have  obtained  from  the  chairman  of  that  other  department 
alone.  It  gave  me  much  more  advice.  Perhaps  the  chairman  system 
throws  a  little  more  responsibility  on  the  president  and  dean;  but,  in 
case  the  president  is  not  well  acquainted  with  the  work  of  the  instructors, 
I  think  he  gets  better  advice  from  several,  than  by  simply  relying  on  the 
heads  of  the  departments.  At  present,  I  know  our  instructors  pretty  well. 
I  presume  we  have  a  larger  number  of  full  and  assistant  professors  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  our  instructors  than  in  some  of  the  larger 
state  universities,  but  I  think  our  situation  is  probably  a  fair  example." 

"PRESIDENT  McVEY:  Does  the  chairman  plan  give  the  administration 
a  sufficient  check  upon  the  work  of  the  instructors?  Such  a  check,  it 
seems  to  me,  can  only  be  secured  through  the  assistance  of  heads  of  depart- 
ments. The  point  raised  by  President  Venable  is  a  real  point." 

"PRESIDENT  HILL:  Back  of  his  question  is  the  assumption  that  efficiency 
can  be  secured  from  the  younger  men  of  the  faculty  only  by  putting  some 
one  in  a  position  to  force  efficiency.  Now,  I  do  not  think  that  that  rep- 
resents a  proper  educational  ideal,  and  I  think  it  unfair  to  the  younger 
men." 

"PRESIDENT  HUTCHINS:     At  Michigan  we  have  small  departments,  and 


DEPARTMENT    ORGANIZATION  253 

large  departments — departments  of  all  sizes.  It  does  not  seem  necessary 
that  the  organization  of  all  departments  should  be  rigidly  uniform." 

"PRESIDENT  HILL:  So  far  as  the  working  of  the  system  is  concerned, 
it  makes  little  difference  whether  the  departments  are  large  or  small. 
Leadership  these  young  men  certainly  need;  but  that  leadership  will  show 
itself  whatever  the  size  of  the  department.  I  haven't  the  slightest  doubt 
that  a  man  whose  influence  is  great  by  virtue  of  his  ability  will  become 
a  leader  in  his  department  and  stimulate  others  to  render  the  best  pos- 
sible service;  and  he  can  bring  his  influence  to  bear  just  as  well  with 
little  or  no  official  power.  But  how  can  you  deal  with  one  department 
in  one  way,  and  with  another  department  in  another  way?  I  think  our 
situation  in  Missouri  is  very  much  better  now,  after  the  whole  faculty 
has  adopted  the  new  policy,  than  when  I  was  dealing  with  some  depart- 
ments in  advance  of  this  general  action,  and  leaving  other  departments 
as  they  were." 

"PRESIDENT  WHEELEE:  In  my  opinion,  the  proper  organization  of  de- 
partments constitutes  the  best  opportunity  of  making  advance  in  the 
internal  life  of  the  universities  today.  I  am  in  sympathy  with  most  of 
the  views  the  paper  presents.  When  I  first  went  to  Berkeley,  I  found  in 
existence  there  what  is  now  called  the  feudal  system.  .  .  .  We  have 
no  one  rule.  The  older  professors  have  been  allowed  to  go  on  to  the 
conclusion  of  their  term  of  office  without  change  of  their  prerogatives. 
No  one,  however,  is  appointed  as  head  professor.  No  one  receives  a  salary 
as  head  of  a  department.  There  are  a  number  of  departments  in  which 
there  are  several  full  professors.  Each  department  has  a  secretary. 
.  .  .  The  organization  of  the  department  through  its  department  meet- 
ings is  more  important  than  the  question  of  headship." 

"DEAN  BIEGE:  I  will  try  to  state  briefly  our  experience  at  Wisconsin 
regarding  departmental  organization.  We  never  had  any  system  except 
that  of  the  committee.  At  first,  the  committee  consisted,  legally,  of  full 
and  associate  professors;  now  the  assistant  professors  are  regular  mem- 
bers of  the  committee.  But  recommendations  regarding  promotions,  sal- 
aries, and  matters  connected  with  the  annual  budget  come  from  a  com- 
mittee limited  to  professors  and  associate  professors.  In  the  older  organi- 
zation, the  chairman  was  said  to  have  the  powers  ordinarily  belonging  to 
the  chairman  of  a  committee.  In  the  newer  scheme,  his  powers  are  more 
explicitly  stated,  but,  in  general,  he  is  the  executive  officer  of  the  depart- 
ment. He  is  not  to  dictate  the  policy  or  to  order  each  man's  work;  but 
it  is  his  duty  to  see  that  the  departmental  committee  adopts  a  policy 


254  RANK — TENURE SALARIES 

which  he  can  execute.  In  short,  he  has  the  same  responsibility  for  the 
committee  that  a  chairman  ordinarily  has,  and  he  has  whatever  powers 
are  needed  for  carrying  out  his  duties.  .  .  .  The  chairman  is  appointed 
by  the  dean  and  president  in  consultation,  after  ascertaining  the  wishes 
of  the  members  of  the  department.  .  .  .  Within  the  department  we 
expect  that  responsibilities  and  powers  will  go  together.  Large  depart- 
ments practically  divide  into  branches,  as  English  into  literature  and 
composition.  The  man  or  men  in  immediate  charge  of  each  branch  are 
primarily  responsible  for  it,  and  have  corresponding  influence  in  regard 
to  policy  and  in  regard  to  appointments.  Appointments  to  positions 
higher  than  that  of  assistant  professors  are  regarded  as  matters  for  the 
university,  rather  than  for  the  department.  Nominations  are  made  by 
the  president  after  consulting  with  the  professors  of  the  departments 
interested,  but  no  formal  recommendations  are  made  by  a  committee. 
The  departmental  committees  do  not  make  recommendations  regarding 
salaries  of  members  above  the  rank  of  assistant  professor." 

"PBESIDENT  HUTCHINS:  Are  we  to  conclude  from  what  you  have  said 
that  you  deem  the  general  adoption  in  the  immediate  future  of  the  chair- 
man system  to  be  advisable?" 

"PRESIDENT  HILL:  I  assume  a  reasonable  time  for  making  the  change. 
The  principle,  however,  might  be  announced  and  generally  accepted  with- 
out delay." 

Rank — Tenure — Salaries 

The  general  features  of  the  administrative  practice  that  deter- 
mines the  rank,  tenure  of  office,  and  scale  of  salaries  of  faculty 
members,  ought  to  be  reduced  to  a  well  articulated,  suitably  elastic, 
and  plainly  intelligible  program  designed  upon  sound  principles. 
Each  institution  must  study  out  for  itself  the  salaries  required  by 
the  scale  and  cost  of  living  in  its  environment,  making  changes  as 
required  by  changing  social  and  economic  conditions.  This  is  one 
of  the  most  important  responsibilities  of  the  governing  board. 
This  first  principle  of  right  action  in  this  matter,  is,  that  provision 
should  be  made  to  do  well  everything  that  is  attempted.  Other 
guiding  principles  look  to  ways  and  means  of  getting  and  keeping 
high-minded  and  able  men  in  the  faculty. 

The  ranks  will  more  easily  fit  actual  conditions  if  they  be  more 
than  the  minimum — instructor,  assistant  professor,  professor.  The 


IUXK — TENURE — SALARIES  255 

scale  of  salaries  ought  always  to  correspond  definitely  with  the 
scale  of  rank.  It  is  advantageous,  therefore,  to  have  the  elasticity 
of  such  a  scale  as — instructor,  assistant  professor,  adjunct  profes- 
sor, associate  professor,  professor.  Advancement  over  more  than 
one  grade  at  a  single  promotion  should  not  be  prohibited  or  very 
rare.  Unless  some  colleges  and  universities  will  desist  from 
putting  young  men  and  women  in  teaching  positions  before  they 
have  pursued  graduate  courses  of  study,  it  would  be  well  for  them 
to  make  yet  one  more  rank  for  the  lowest  grade,  such  as  "assistant 
instructor."  When  a  man  proved  elsewhere  is  called  to  a  faculty 
position,  he  should  be  located  in  the  scale  of  rank  and  salary  in 
substantial  accordance  with  his  professional  merit  as  compared 
with  his  new  colleagues. 

The  following  scale  is  submitted  as  an  illustration  for  a  case  in 
which  one  might  rise  through  each  stage,  from  the  bottom  to  the 
top.  The  salaries  set  down  are  merely  suggestions.  The  first 
of  the  alternative  figures  for  each  rank  represents  a  minimum;  the 
second  would  generally  be  more  just  and  more  expedient;  and  in 
some  cities,  or  if  a  university  desires  to  command  (as  far  as  sala- 
ries can  command)  its  choice  of  men,  a  higher  scale  is  required: 

Unproved  instructors  should  be  appointed  for  one  year,  at  a  sal- 
ary of  $1,000  or  $1,200,  where  the  doctorate  or  a  professional  de- 
gree (or  its  equivalent  in  independent  study  and  experience)  is 
required.*  After  one  or  two  years  of  probation  this  instructor 
should  be  dropped,  or  reappointed  without  limit  of  time  and  with 
vote  in  his  division  faculty,  at  $1,200  or  $1,500  with  some  small 
advance  for  each  subsequent  year,  if  retained.  If  this  approved 
instructor  is  retained  more  than  two  or  three  years,  he  should  be 
made  assistant  professor,  at  a  salary  adequate  to  the  support  of  a 
wife  and  several  small  children,  say  $2,000  or  $2,400.  A  man  who 
does  not  deserve  to  be  advanced  to  the  rank  of  assistant  professor 


•Nothing  of  the  nature  of  the  "assistant  instructor"  mentioned  above  is 
here  considered. 


256  RANK — TENURE — SALARIES 

after  serving  five  years  as  instructor  ought  not  to  be  retained  at  all. 
After  the  assistant  professorship,  it  seems  to  me  that  continued 
promotion  to  the  highest  rank  after  stated  periods  ought  not  to  be 
•the  only  alternative  to  dismissal.  The  appointment  as  assistant 
professor  should  be  for  a  term  of  years,  say,  five  years.  At  the  end 
of  each  term  the  assistant  professor  should  be  promoted,  or  be  reap- 
pointed  with  small  raise  of  salary,  or  be  dropped.  An  adjunct 
professor  should  be  appointed  for  a  term  of  five  years  at  $2,700  or 
$3,000,  with  the  same  alternatives  at  the  end  of  each  term  as  sug- 
gested for  the  previous  stage.  The  appointment  as  associate  pro- 
fessor should  be  for  life  at  $3,000  or  $3,500,  advanceable  at  any 
time  to  the  highest  rank.  The  initial  salary  of  a  full  professorship 
should  be  $4,000  or  $4,500.  The  salary  in  a  life  professorship 
should  rise  every  five  years  by  some  advance  until  the  maximum  of 
$3,500  or  $4,000  for  an  associate  professorship,  and  $4,500  or  $5,000 
for  the  full  professorship  be  reached. 

Election  to  a  deanship  should  raise  a  man  of  lower  rank  to  the 
rank  and  salary  of  associate  professor,  or,  if  of  that  rank  already, 
to  the  salary  of  full  professor  of  same  length  of  service,  or,  if  a 
full  professor,  to  the  maximum  salary.  "Upon  resignation  from 
deanship,  or  other  termination  of  services  as  dean,  the  officer  should 
return  to  the  rank  and  salary  determined  by  the  highest  point  in 
the  scale  attainable  (without  extraordinary  action1)  during  the  time 
of  his  service  as  dean,  with  the  benefit  of  counting  any  fraction  of  a 
period  for  a  raise  in  salary  as  the  entire  period. 

The  salaries  of  the  minor  administrative  positions  (registrars, 
secretaries,  etc.)  may  be  assimilated  according  to  age  and  scholar- 
ship to  the  salaries  of  the  teachers,  with  some  premium  for  these 
less  attractive  places.  President  Eliot  is  right  in' holding: 

"In  general  the  administrative  posts  in  a  university  are  less  attractive 
than  the  teaching  posts,  because  they  do  not  offer  the  satisfaction  of 
literary  or  scientific  attainment,  the  long,  uninterrupted  vacations  which 
teachers  enjoy,  or  the  pleasures  of  intimate,  helpful  intercourse  with  a 
stream  of  young  men  of  high  intellectual  ambition  [or,  I  would  add,  the 


RANK — TENURE SALARIES  257 

opportunity  for  professional  development  and  advancement].  Accordingly, 
salaries  for  able  and  altruistic  young  men  ought  to  be  somewhat  higher 
in  administrative  posts  than  they  are  for  men  of  corresponding  age  and 
merit  in  teaching  posts." 

As  to  the  president,  I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  opinion,  much 
expressed  in  discussions  published  during  the  last  two  years,  that 
his  salary  ought  not  to  exceed  the  salary  of  a  full  professor.  The 
practical  social  demands  made  upon  the  president,  as  well  as  his 
responsibilities  and  burdens  and  risk,  justify  a  salary  well  nigh 
double  that  of  any  professor.  In  mentioning  the  "risk"  assumed 
by  the  president  of  the  average  college  or  university,  I  had  in  mind 
a  far  worse  risk  than  death;  for  I  am  one  of  those  who  deem, 
"Wisdom  is  gray  hairs  unto  men,  and  an  unspotted  life  is  ripe  old 
age."  But  President  W.  T.  Foster  states :  "The  college  president 
is  already  regarded  as  a  poor  risk  by  life  insurance  companies." 
Such  risk  would  be  much  reduced  if  the  forms  of  organization  and 
practices  of  administration  recommended  in  this  book  were  insti- 
tuted; but  as  matters  stand,  I  am  sure  that  the  life  insurance  com- 
panies have  overlooked  an  item  from  the  actuary's,  if  not  from  the 
agent's  point  of  view,  if  they  do  not  regard  the  life  of  a  college 
president  as  a  poor  risk. 

Of  theories  opposed  to  such  a  program  for  rank  and  salary  as  I 
have  recommended,  only  one  seems  to  me  to  merit  discussion — after 
all  that  has  been  presented  in  previous  chapters.  Professor  Jas- 
trow  contends : 

"What  I  emphasize  as  essential  is  that  men  are  elected  to  positions  of 
definite  rank,  for  definite  periods,  with  definite  understandings.  The  cen- 
tral issue  that  is  to  be  determined  at  the  close  of  the  period  is  whether 
the  university  desires  to  retain  the  services  of  the  occupant;  if  so,  he 
steps  to  the  next  grade  with  constantly  increasing  salary.  .  .  .  More 
rapid  promotion  is  always  open  to  promptly  established  worth  and  effi- 
ciency, and  should  indeed  be  the  rule,  not  the  exception.  Such  measures 
of  elasticity  the  system  designedly  retains.  .  .  . 

"A  living  within  the  academic  fold  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  reward 


258  BANK — TENURE — SALARIES 

to  be  given  to  the  exceptionally  deserving  when  circumstances  indicate 
that  the  only  method  of  retaining  their  services  is  to  yield  what  for  years 
has  been  unwisely  and  unjustly  withheld,  but  is  to  be  regarded  as  a 
natural  privilege  for  all  worthy  of  the  academic  life.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  discrepancy  in  the  inevitable  fact  that  A  and  B,  men  of  quite 
unequal  merit  and  value  to  their  institution,  should  be  enjoying  the  same 
income.  There  is  nothing  in  the  slightest  degree  disconcerting  in  so 
inevitable  a  consequence  of  human  variability;  and  in  a  less  commercially 
minded  community,  no  one  would  think  of  remarking  upon  so  obvious  a 
situation.  A  man's  academic  worth  should  not  and  cannot  in  the  least 
be  measured  by  his  salary;  and  any  attempt  to  do  so  is  a  deep  injury  to 
the  profession.  If  some  one  has  made  a  mistake  in  judgment  in  asking  a 
wrong  man  to  fill  a  chair,  when  better  men  are  available,  and  if  the  mis- 
take cannot  be  remedied  without  repudiating  obligations  already  incurred, 
it  is  far  better  to  seek  any  solution  of  the  situation  than  the  one  that 
sets  the  emphasis  upon  the  very  point  that  has  no  place  in  the  academic 
life.  Endowed  professorships  insuring  adequate  livings  are  for  this  reason 
far  more  ideal  a  system  than  American  circumstances  make  practicable, 
"I  have  thus  dwelt  upon  the  more  serious  of  the  unfortunate  conse- 
quences of  the  dominant  systemless  practices  in  American  institutions, 
and  of  the  possibilities  of  their  correction.  It  is  even  more  than  a  mis- 
fortune; it  is  indeed  an  indignity  that  a  scholar  of  tried  worth  and  repu- 
tation— one  who  in  another  country  would  be  an  homme  arriv&  with  a 
secure  living — should  still  find  the  very  wherewithal  of  his  sustenance, 
and  the  appraisal  of  his  rank  meted  out  to  him  by  the  uncertain  esteem 
of  one  or  two  of  his  colleagues — for  such  the  president  and  the  dean  are — 
placed  in  a  position  of  authority  by  reason  of  qualities  unrelated  to  any 
such  Jupiterian  function.  His  helplessness  in  a  situation,  for  which  inade- 
quate administration  or  administrative  autocracy  has  left  no  place  for 
remedy,  hardly  even  for  protest,  may  well  invite  despair." 

The  general  ideas  and  impulses  expressed  in  the  foregoing  state- 
ment deserve  sympathy  and  respect.  They  are  essentially  right. 
But  they  run  to  extremes  at  two  practical  issues.  After  due  moder 
ation  at  these  points,  there  would  remain  no  inconsistency  with  the 
procedure  I  advocate.  The  organic  check  and  safeguard  described 
at  pages  129  and  133  should  render  the  president's  power  of  nomina- 


RANK TENURE — SALARIES  259 

tion  as  satisfactory  as  it  is  appropriate  to  his  responsibility  and 
necessary  under  the  system  of  government  and  method  of  remuner- 
ating members  of  the  faculty  in  American  universities.  The  only 
remaining  difference  lies  in  my  advice  that,  after  attaining  the  low- 
est rank  of  the  professoriate,  automatic  promotion  after  regular 
periods  ought  not  to  be  the  only  alternative  to  dismissal.  My  pro- 
posal is  not  based  on  the  idea  denounced  by  Professor  Jastrow.  I 
thoroughly  agree  with  him,  that  salaries  cannot  be  made  commen- 
surate with  merit  and  worth  to  the  institution,  and  that  it  is  inevit- 
able and  not  in  the  slightest  degree  disconcerting  that  men  of 
unequal  merit  and  value  should  enjoy  the  same  income.  But  it 
does  not  follow  from  this  calm  and  sane  recognition  of  the  essential 
disparity  between  moral  worth  and  material  reward,  that  every  man 
entering  the  service  ought  to  pass  automatically  to  the  highest  dig- 
nity and  responsibility.  There  are  men  of  a  calibre  not  fitted  to 
the  responsibilities  of  the  highest  rank,  who  might  still  be  merito- 
rious and  permanently  useful  in  less  exalted  positions.  I  do  not 
see  why  the  embarrassing  situation  should  be  created  arbitrarily 
whereby,  at  the  end  of  five  years,  no  choice  is  left  except  to  turn 
a  teacher  out  or  to  promote  him  in  rank.  Mr.  S.  A.  Bullard,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  in  dis- 
cussing this  question  remarked : 

"If  we  have  a  rigid  system  by  which  promotion  may  be  expected,  ft  is 
evidently  going  to  work  a  hardship  to  some  members  of  the  faculty.  For 
instance,  a  certain  member  of  the  faculty  is  apparently  not  strong.  He 
does  not  shine  like  some  others,  but  he  is  a  sober,  earnest,  hard-working 
man  and  accomplishes  what  he  undertakes  to  accomplish.  .  .  .  Judgment 
has  to  be  used  in  such  a  case,  lest  a  man  might  be  dropped  who  does  not 
shine  brightly,  but  whose  work  in  his  department  gives  good  results,  and 
promotes  the  general  interest  of  the  university.  What  are  you  going  to  do, 
when  the  five  years  are  up?  You  will,  under  the  system  suggested,  have 
to  say  to  him  that  he  must  drop  out.  .  .  .  We  cannot  make  a  cast- 
iron  rule  for  the  promotion  of  every  man.  Men  must  stand  on  their 
individual  qualities  and  character.  .  .  .  Presidents  of  universities  also 


260  RECRUITING   A   FACULTY 

have  to  pass  under  inspection,  and  it  comes  up  in  the  board  every  once  in 
a  while  whether  it  would  not  be  a  good  idea  to  have  a  change  of  admin- 
istration." 

Recruiting  a  Faculty 

A  few  general  principles  that  should  guide  in  selecting  individ- 
uals to  fill  the  numerous  vacancies  and  new  positions  occurring  in 
the  faculty  of  every  growing  college,  may  be  briefly  stated.  As 
in  nearly  all  matters  of  administration  (as  distinguished  from 
organization*),  President  Eliot's  counsel  in  these  regards  could 
hardly  be  improved,  and  the  reader  is  referred  to  his  book  Univer- 
sity Administration. 

If  practicable  the  president  and  his  advisers  should  have  seen 
and  conversed  with  the  man  under  consideration.  The  whole  per- 
sonality, as  well  as  professional  attainments  and  skill  in  teaching 
and  in  research,  should  be  regarded.  As  a  means  to  this,  the 
presidents  of  universities  should  attend  the  meetings  of  learned 
societies,  and  the  institution  should  offer  to  every  member  of  the 
faculty  payment  once  a  year  of  railroad  fare  to  some  such  meeting. 
Other  expenses  should  not  be  paid,  lest  temptations  to  make  trips 
for  selfish  reasons  be  extended.  Besides  the  direct  benefit  to  the 
specialist  of  attending  national  assemblies  of  his  coworkers,  there 
are  great  advantages  in  the  matter  here  referred  to.  Speaking 
of  the  societies  devoted  to  special  branches  of  knowledge,  Prsident 
Eliot  says : 

"To  the  annual  meetings  of  these  societies  men  come  from  all  parts  of 
the  country,  and  spend  a  few  days  together  in  earnest  discussion  of  topics 
in  which  they  have  a  common  interest.  The  professors  of  these  several 
subjects  in  any  one  university  will  gradually  have  opportunities  to  measure 
and  weigh  all  the  other  active  members  of  the  same  society,  and  particu- 
larly to  see  and  hear  the  younger  members  of  the  society.  Much  valuable 
information  is,  therefore,  to  be  obtained  through  these  meetings  of  special- 
ists concerning  candidates  for  teachers'  places  in  the  colleges  and  univer- 


»See  pages  240-241. 


RECRUITING   A   FACULTY  261 

sities  of  the  country.  At  these  meetings  much  can  be  learned  about  the 
personality  of  the  men  who  come  to  them.  The  whole  meeting  will  learn 
that  such  a  one  is  high-minded  and  winning,  and  a  master  of  his  subject, 
and  that  such  another  is  rude  and  unattractive,  though  doubtless  able." 

A  faculty  should  be  recruited  from  a  variety  of  sources.  The 
constant  temptation  to  in-breeding  must  be  resisted.  A  large  uni- 
versity needs  to  try  out  a  large  number  of  young  instructors  in 
annual  appointments, — persons  who  have  just  received  (or  have 
nearly  completed  the  studies  for)  the  doctorate  or  an  equivalent 
professional  degree.  But  not  all  even  of  these  should  be  of  its 
own  upbringing.  The  professors  of  every  rank  and  the  instructors 
\vithout  limit  of  time  in  the  staff  of  any  department  are  the  best 
judges  of  character  and  capabilities  of  the  annual  appointees  in  the 
department.  Their  recommendations  for  appointments  to  in- 
structorships  without  limit  of  time  ought  to  be  followed,  pro- 
vided they  and  the  president  have  looked  about  to  discover  young 
men  in  other  institutions  who  have  distinguished  themselves,  and 
duly  consider  such  of  these  as  may  be  obtainable  in-  comparison  with 
their  own  probationers.  The  call  of  a  strong  university  in  good 
repute  will  often  bring  to  an  instructorship  without  limit  of  time, 
not  only  the  most  promising  of  similar  instructors,  but  even  assist- 
ant professors  in  weaker  or  less  congenial  institutions.  All 
instructorships  are  distinctly  and  emphatically  probationary 
appointments.* 

At  every  stage  the  next  higher  rank  ought  not  to  be  filled  exclu- 
sively by  advancement  from  within.  Men  called  from  other  institu- 

*President  Eliot  acutely  observes  that  the  probationary  period  ought 
to  cover  the  time  within  which  marriage  is  probable.  He  says:  "Mar- 
riage is  quite  as  apt  to  affect  either  favorably  or  unfavorably  the  efficiency 
and  general  usefulness  of  a  university  teacher,  as  of  professional  and  busi- 
ness men  in  any  other  line.  It  is  a  good  deal  safer  to  give  a  life  office 
to  a  married  man  on  whom  marriags  has  proved  to  have  a  good  effect, 
than  to  a  single  man  who  may  shortly  be  married  with  uncertain  results." 
If  this  principle  were  somewhat  recognized,  it  might  operate  as  a  salutary 
encouragement  to  earlier  and  wiser  marriages. 


262  FREEDOM   OF   TEACHING 

tions  are  subject  to  the  regular  conditions  of  the  established  scale; 
if  called  to  positions  below  life-professorships,  the  institution  i* 
under  no  peculiar  obligation  to  retain  them  beyond  stipulated  pe- 
riods, should  they  prove  unsatisfactory.  Of  course,  when  a  man  of 
recognized  standing  and  power  is  called  to  a  full  professorship  (or 
to  an  associate  professorship,  if  life-tenure  belongs  to  that  rank) 
an  honorable  institution  has  committed  itself  to  a  life-time  en- 
gagement, no  matter  whether  experience  brings  disappointment 
or  not. 

I  shall  say  nothing  about  pensions  for  superannuated  teachers. 
There  is  abundant  literature  on  the  subject.  It  does  not  seem 
to  me  to  be  of  vital  importance.  Teachers  could,  if  need  be,  get 
along  as  well  as  others  without  old-age  and  service  pensions,  if 
properly  respected  in  their  calling  and  suitably  remunerated  during 
their  service.  This  is  a  hard  world,  and  all  improvable  conditions 
should  be  improved  for  all  men;  but  meanwhile  there  are  compen- 
sations in  some  seeming  hardships,  and  some  responsibilities  and 
some  risks  may  strengthen  if  rightly  comprehended  and  accepted. 

Freedom  of  Teaching 

The  situation  of  the  professor  in  American  universities  in  re- 
spect to  freedom  of  teaching  has  improved  so  much  during  the  last 
thirty  years,  that  he  has  left  not  much  cause  of  complaint.  In  some 
denominational  colleges  religious  intolerance,  and  in  a  few  state 
institutions  "politics"  or  the  clamor  of  some  group  calling  itself  the 
public,  has  occasionally  wrought  folly  in  Israel;  but  such  occur- 
rences are  always  widely  denounced,  are  offensive  to  public  opinion 
at  large,  and  are  contrary  to  the  characteristic  policy  and  practice 
of  our  reputable  universities.  Security  in  any  proper  expression 
of  scientific  views  seems  fairly  assured  for  the  future, — unless, 
indeed,  the  device  of  putting  a  central  board  of  control  over  a 
subordinate  board  of  "regents"  should  spread  enough  to  involve 
many  state  universities  in  its  toils.  Meanwhile,  of  course,  every 


FREEDOM    OF   TEACHING  263 

clear  transgression  ought  to  be  denounced  ("vigilance  is  the  price 
of  liberty")  in  a  way  that  will  instil,  in  those  inclined  to  trans- 
gress, a  wholesome  fear  of  righteous  indignation. 

There  being  no  respectable  difference  of  opinion  about  trans- 
gressions against  genuine  freedom  of  teaching,  it  will  be  more 
profitable  to  consider  the  matter  from  another  side.  Judging  from 
the  discussions  that  follow  every  alleged  trespass  against  Jehrfrei- 
Tieit,  it  appears  that  some  American  professors  do  not  understand 
what  the  lehrfreiheit  they  invoke  should  be,  and  is.  Some  seem 
to  imagine  that  it  should  be,  and  that  it  is  in  Germany,  an  official 
immunity,  such  as  that  of  the  Cuban  legislators  who  cannot  be  law- 
fully arrested  for  any  crime  whatsoever.  Lehrfreiheit  is  not  a  license 
or  a  stipulation  of  any  sort ;  it  is  a  principle,  a  code  of  honor.  The 
freedom  is  the  reverse  side  of  a  responsibility.  Like  everv  other 
principle  of  conduct,  or  code  of  honor,  no  man  can  learn  what  it  is 
from  any  formula  or  set  of  rules;  to  understand  it,  he  must  learn 
what  it  is  from  those  who  live  it.  Accordingly,  I  cannot  better 
illustrate,  than  by  quoting  two  men  who  have  been  personally 
through  long  lives  noble  exponents  of  the  principle,  and  who  have 
lived  those  lives  in  a  university  which,  for  twenty  years  at  least, 
has  kept  the  faith  as  blamelessly  as  any  other  in  the  world, — Presi- 
dent Schurman  and  Professor  Creighton,  of  Cornell  University. 

During  the  current  year  a  professor  was  dismissed  by  "Wesleyan 
University,  after  twenty  years'  service,  on  grounds  (as  publicly 
stated  by  the  president  of  the  institution)  which  Professor  Creigh- 
ton deemed  "trivial  and  puerile."  In  censuring  the  dismissal  both 
on  the  grounds  alleged  and  on  reports  of  the  "real  ground"  which 
"seem  reliable,"  Professor  Creighton  took  occasion  in  a  communi- 
cation published  in  Science,  Mar.  21,  1913,  to  quote  the  following 
passage  from  an  address  delivered  by  President  Schurman  in 
1897: 

"If  it  is  asserted  that  the  business  of  the  college  or  university  is  to 
teach  that  which  the  average  man  may  believe,  or  that  which  is  acceptable 


264  FREEDOM    OF   TEACHING 

to  the  university,  or  that  which  the  board  of  trustees  may  assert  as  the 
tmth,  the  answer  must  always  be  that  such  a  course  contravenes  the  very 
principle  on  which  the  university  was  founded,  and  however  true  it  may 
be  that  the  majority  must  rule  in  the  body  politic,  the  motto  of  the  uni- 
versity must  be,  one  man  with  God's  truth  is  a  majority.  There  is  also 
a  second  principle  involved.  It  is  perfectly  clear  that  every^ teacher  must 
be  free  to  carry  out  his  inquiries  and  to  announce  and  proclaim  if  he 
wishes  what  he  has  observed,  or  in  dealing  with  the  individual  student 
the  teacher  must  be  free  to  present  all  phases  of  the  question  as  they 
occur  to  him — otherwise  he  has  missed  his  great  vocation  as  a  teacher. 
"Money  is  needed  by  universities.  I  know  it  well.  .  .  .  Yet  if 
money  is  to  be  got  for  the  institution  by  the  suppression  of  the  truth,  by 
setting  any  limitation  whatever  upon  the  freedom  of  the  teachers  to 
inquire  or  to  announce  the  results  of  their  inquiries,  better  a  thousand 
times  that  the  institution  should  go  out  of  existence.  The  end  of  a  uni- 
versity is  truth  and  the  promotion  of  truth.  Money  may  be  a  means  to 
that  end,  and  as  a  means  it  may  kindle  a  great  light;  as  an  end  it  can 
only  produce  total  darkness.  Hence,  any  attempt  to  set  limitations  upon 
the  independence  of  the  teaching  staff  must  be  resisted,  must  be  unwar- 
ranted." 

In  a  following  issue  of  Science  (Apr.  18,  1913)  a  correspondent, 
after  stating  that  he  regarded  the  sentiments  of  President  Schur- 
man  "as  highly  commendable,"  wrote  cynically  and  despairingly  as 
follows : 

"Academic  freedom  is  like  friendship,  'but  a  name  that  lures  the  soul 
to  sleep.'  .  .  .  Let  us  suppose,  for  instance,  that  when  Professor 
Schurman's  address  was  published,  a  subordinate  instructor  in  the  univer- 
sity had  spoken  as  follows:  'When  President  Schurman  speaks  of  "God's 
truth"  he  speaks  of  something  about  which  he  knows  no  more  than  a 
gibbering  idiot  in  the  nearest  asylum.  God,  if  He  exists,  has  apparently 
not  declared  Himself  to  anybody.  All  such  allusions  are  either  mere 
catering  to  popular  superstitions,  or  are  on  the  same  plane  as  the  beliefs 
of  the  lowest  savages.'  How  long  would  this  instructor  retain  his  place 
in  the  university?  I  would  be  pleased  to  hear  what  your  correspondent 
would  advocate  concerning  a  person  who  should  so  express  himself.  A 
hundred  other  examples  can  be  selected." 


FREEDOM    OF    TEACHING  265 

Before  giving  Professor  Creighton's  answer  to  the  correspond- 
ent's main  question,  I  will  make  squarely  two  observations: 
Academic  freedom  is  something  like  friendship,  but  the  similitude 
is  to  be  found  in  the  idea,  as  expressed  by  Kingsley:  "It  is  only 
the  great  hearted  who  can  be  true  friends,  the  mean  the  cowardly 
can  never  know  what  true  friendship  is."  The  assertion  that  friend- 
ship is  only  a  name  that  lures  the  soul  to  sleep,  like  every  other 
cynical  statement  has  some  petty  basis  of  fact,  because  nothing 
human  is  perfect;  nevertheless  Cicero's  saying  is  the  Truth:  "It 
is  like  taking  the  sun  out  of  the  world  to  bereave  human  life  of 
friendship."  In  the  second  place,  the  "instance"  chosen  by  the 
correspondent  does  not  involve  freedom  of  teaching  at  all.  In  the 
context  in  question  there  is  no  difference  between  the  phrases,  "one 
man  with  God's  truth  is  a  majority."  and  "one  with  Truth  is  a 
majority";  and  therefore  the  perpetrator  of  the  supposed  folly,  if 
intelligently  accused,  would  be  charged  with  wanton  incivility,  not 
with  scientific  doubts  or  denials  of  man's  knowledge  of  God.  If 
dismissed,  it  would  be  for  conduct  unbecoming  a  scholar  (to  say 
nothing  of  a  gentleman), — not  for  skepticism.  He  might  express 
the  same  doubts  or  denials  in  a  reasonable  connection,  and  proper 
manner,  without  disturbing  anyone  or  being  himself  disturbed. 
Professor  Creighton's  answer  ought  to  make  the  matter  plain  to 
one  able  to  comprehend  any  ethical  problem : 

"When  the  necessity  of  freedom  for  university  teachers  and  investigators 
is  emphasized,  it  is  never  assumed  that  this  freedom  carries  with  it  a 
license  to  do  or  say  anything  and  everything.  University  teachers  do  not 
claim  that  they  constitute  a  class  with  special  privileges.  But  as  a  body 
of  men  with  serious  and  important  work  to  do,  they  claim  the  freedom 
that  is  necessary  to  enable  them  to  perform  this  work  and  to  fulfill  their 
obligations  to  society.  Freedom  in  this  field,  as  everywhere,  is  a  reason- 
able freedom,  involving  law,  responsibility,  and  due  regard  for  others. 
Academic  freedom  has  its  roots  and  its  justification  in  the  duty  which 
the  teacher  owes  to  his  students  and  to  the  community.  It  may  well  be 
that  at  times  it  is  just  as  important  to  emphasize  this  duty  and  respon- 


FREEDOM   OF   TEACHING 

sibility  as  to  call  attention  to  the  necessity  of  freedom.  But  one  side 
is  the  counterpart  and  complement  of  the  other:  where  there  is  no  free- 
dom there  can  be  no  responsibility,  and  where  there  is  no  feeling  of  respon- 
sibility there  can  be  no  genuine  freedom.  If  this  is  true,  it  would  seem 
to  follow  that  the  limits  of  a  reasonable  freedom  cannot  be  fixed  by  any 
abstract  definition.  What  are  the  reasonable  limits  in  any  particular 
case  must  be  decided  by  the  whole  set  of  circumstances,  as  judged  by 
reasonable  men  living  in  a  reasonable  society.  Of  course  this  involves  a 
circle;  but  there  is  no  way  of  escaping  it." 

If  any  reader,  who  does  not  already  know,  would  like  to  hear 
what  lehrfreiheii  really  is  in  the  land  of  its  glory  and  fullest  flor- 
escence, I  refer  him  to  the  noble  work,  The  German  Universities, 
by  Friederich  Paul  sen,  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the  University 
of  Berlin,  or  to  its  admirable  authorized  translation  by  Professor 
Frank  Thilly,  then  (1906)  in  Princeton  University,  now  Professor 
of  Philosophy  in  Cornell  University.  If  that  book  were  instantly 
read  by  every  faculty  member  and  by  every  student,  and  by  every 
president  and  regent  of  American  universities,  the  ideas  thereby 
engendered  would  quickly  work  many  needed  reforms — not  by 
way  of  any  imitation,  but  from  the  sheer  effect  of  enlightment.* 
The  whole  book  shines  with  one  candid  spirit,  and  the  writer  is  as 
sagacious  as  he  is  sincere.  There  is  a  chapter  of  nearly  forty 
pages  on  Freedom  of  Teaching. 

The  German  people  are,  as  Helmholz  declared,  "more  fearless 

*Professor  Thilly,  himself  familiar  with  the  German  universities  as  well 
as  with  the  best  in  America,  says  in  his  preface  to  the  translation: 

"It  ought  to  be  studied  by  every  man  who  takes  any  part  in  university 
legislation,  whether  as  president,  professor,  or  member  of  a  controlling 
board,  and  by  every  student  who  desires  to  get  the  most  out  of  his  uni- 
versity course.  It  is  so  rich  in  valuable  information,  so  full  of  practical 
suggestions,  that  it  cannot  fail  to  prove  useful  and  helpful  to  all  who 
sincerely  desire  to  perform  the  tasks  growing  out  of  their  connection  with 
university  life,  in  the  best  possible  manner.  Particularly  in  this  country 
where  things  are  in  the  transition  state  and  where,  in  spite  of  much  that 
is  crude  and  charlatanical,  the  desire  is  strong  to  assimilate  all  that  is 
good  in  the  higher  institutions  of  other  countries,  will  a  work  like  this 
assist  us  in  finding  the  right  path." 


FREEDOM    OF   TEACHING  267 

of  the  consequences  of  the  whole  truth  than  any  other  people" ;  and, 
perhaps,  in  no  other  country  will  the  people  ever  take  as  much 
interest  and  pride  in  the  freedom  of  teaching,  or  guard  it  so  jeal- 
ously, as  do  the  Germans.  "The  German  university,"  says  Presi- 
dent G.  Stanley  Hall,  "is  the  freest  spot  on  earth  .  .  .  but  the 
most  perfect  liberty  was  never  more  triumphantly  vindicated  by  its 
fruits."  I  am  here  emphasizing,  however,  the  fact  that  in  the  Ger- 
man freedom  of  teaching,  responsibility  is  recognized  and  enforced. 
Professor  Paulsen  explains:  "We  can  neither  justly  demand  nor 
reasonably  expect  that  the  state  should  voluntarily  expose  itself  and 
its  legality  to  whatever  insults  the  theorists  appointed  by  it  as 
teachers  may  choose  to  offer.  Such  unlimited  academic  freedom 
would  manifestly  be  conceivable  only  as  an  evidence  of  the  state's 
absolute  contempt  for  the  professor's  teaching;  it  would  be  placing 
it  on  a  level  with  the  pratings  of  an  anarchistic  demagogue  .  .  .  Just 
as  there  can  be  such  a  thing  as  supersensitiveness,  there  can  be  su- 
pertolerance."  The  Germans  see  both  sides  of  the  question.  For  the 
very  reason  that  they  will  not  suffer  political  interference  with 
teaching,  they  will  not  allow  the  teacher  to  be  a  practical  politic-ian. 
"The  question  might  well  be  asked,"  says  Paulsen,  "whether  parti- 
san activity  had  been  pursued  in  such  a  manner  and  to  such  an  ex- 
tent as  to  be  no  longer  compatible  with  the  candidate's  function 
as  a  teacher  of  science.  This  applies  equally  to  all  parties."  There 
is  one  restriction  even  upon  the  neutrality  of  the  state  toward  the 
results  of  research.  Professor  Paulsen  explains  why  it  is  "neces- 
sary to  place  one  restriction,  if  not  upon  the  thinker,  at  least  upon 
the  teacher  appointed  by  the  state  and  supported  from  the  funds 
of  the  people" : 

"A  person  who  .  .  .  assumes  a  hostile  attitude  towards  the  state 
as  the  historically  developed  institution  of  the  people,  aiming  at  its  dis- 
memberment and  destruction  and  not  at  its  preservation  and  improvement, 
cannot  as  an  honest  man  accept  an  office  and  a  commission  from  the  hands 
of  the  people  or  the  state.  .  .  . 


268  FREEDOM   OF   TEACHING 

"Or  suppose  that  a  man  had  been  convinced  by  his  own  reflections  upon 
the  nature  of  the  state  or  by  the  eloquence  of  a  Tolstoi,  that  the  state  as 
an  institution  of  force  was  an  evil,  and  ought  to  be  destroyed.  That, 
too,  would  unfit  him  for  the  office  of  a  teacher  of  political  science  just  as 
it  would  unfit  a  person  to  be  a  teacher  of  law  if  he  looked  upon  the  posi- 
tive law  as  a  foolish  burden  and  a  plague — always  provided  at  least  that 
the  state  is  not  inclined  to  abrogate  itself  and  the  law  in  case  theory 
demands  it.  The  teacher  will,  therefore,  have  to  recognize  that  there  is 
a  reason  in  these  things,  and  it  will  be  his  first  task  to  see  and  to  show 
the  reason  that  is  in  them.  Then  he  may  also  point  out  the  distance 
between  the  reality  and  the  ideal,  and,  if  he  can,  the  way  to  approximate, 
the  ideal.  The  man,  however,  who  can  find  absolutely  no  reason  in  the 
state  and  in  law,  who,  as  a  theoretical  anarchist,  denies  the  necessity  of 
a  state  and  a  legal  order,  having  the  power  to  compel,  not  only  for  an 
ideal  dream-world,  but  for  this  work-a-day  world,  may  try  to  prove  his 
theory  by  means  of  as  many  good  arguments  as  he  can,  but  he  has  no  call 
to  teach  the  political  sciences  at  a  state  institution.  And  no  state  would 
be  willing  to  appoint  him  to  such  an  office  or  be  able  to  tolerate  him  in  it, 
however  thoroughly  he  may  be  convinced  of  his  vocation  for  it.  ... 

"From  this  standpoint  we  may  also  judge  of  the  state's  attitude  toward 
the  academic  presentation  of  the  political  and  social  sciences  in  accordance 
with  the  principles  of  the  social-democracy.  So  long  as  the  party  advo- 
cates a  theory  hostile  in  principle  to  the  state  as  such,  .  .  .  hostile 
to  this  particular  state  and  to  the  state  in  general,  it  cannot  be  permitted 
to  teach  the  political  sciences  in  state  institutions.  A  state  that  will 
permit  such  theories  to  be  taught,  as  'the  results  of  science,'  in  the  lecture 
rooms  of  the  universities  established  by  it,  and  will  allow  the  teachers  of 
the  political  sciences  employed  by  it  to  point  out  the  worthlessness  of  the 
state  as  such,  or  of  this  particular  state,  as  a  scientifically  proved  fact, 
will  be  looked  for  in  vain.  .  .  . 

"This,  of  course,  does  not  mean  that  the  state  should  absolutely  sup- 
press all  attempts  to  formulate  such  theories.  Nor  do  I  deny  the  need 
of  a  social-democratic  party  and  of  its  criticism  of  existing  political  insti- 
tutions. Though  it  may  often  shoot  far  beyond  the  mark,  it  has  given 
rise  to  wholesome  reforms  in  our  legal  and  social  institutions.  .  .  .  All 
I  assert  is  this:  The  state  cannot  hand  over  the  business  of  teaching  the 
science  of  the  state  to  men  who  show  no  deeper  appreciation  of  the  inner 
necessity  of  historical  products,  and  who  have  no  more  respect  for  estab- 


FREEDOM    OF    TEACHING  269 

lished  institutions  than  the  platforms,  literature,  and  press  of  the  social- 
democracy  express.  The  state  will  permit  such  men  to  gain  followers 
for  their  doctrines  wherever  they  choose,  but  it  cannot  appoint  them  as, 
the  authorized  leaders  in  the  science  of  these  things. 

"It  is  also  to  be  added  that  so  long  as  the  social-democracy  boasts  of 
being  a  revolutionary  party,  expecting  and  aiming  at  the  overthrow  of 
the  entire  established  political  and  legal  order,  no  professor,  be  his  chair 
what  it  will,  can  join  this  party  without  at  the  same  time  renouncing 
his  office.  .  .  .  No  state,  be  it  republican  or  monarchial  or  what  you 
please,  will  confer  an  office  upon  a  man  who  declares  it  to  be  his  political 
function  to  destroy  its  very  foundation.  To  destroy  its  very  foundation, 
mind  you,  not  to  reform  and  improve  the  state,  for  which  provision  is 
made  by  the  constitution  itself.  No  one  can  be  an  officer  of  the  state  who 
seeks  to  destroy  it.  Not  for  a  moment  can  we  imagine  that  a  social- 
democratic  republic  or  whatever  the  state  might  call  itself,  would  assume 
a  different  attitude  in  this  respect.  Indeed,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  it 
would  go  much  farther  and  be  forced  to  go  much  farther  in  watching 
those  under  suspicion  and  expelling  its  enemies  than  any  one  of  the  exist- 
ing states.  The  more  firmly  established  a  state  is,  the  less  sensitive  it  is 
to  criticism;  the  weaker  it  is,  the  more  anxious  it  will  be  to  ward  off 
attacks  and  to  suppress  public  criticism.  And  hence  the  freedom  of  teach- 
ing would  be  nowhere  less  assured  than  in  a  place  where  a  new  revolutionary 
government  was  compelled  to  defend  itself  against  reactionary  movements, 
where  law  and  authority  were  insecure  and  depended  wholly  upon  public 
opinion,  the  most  uncertain  thing  in  the  world.  .  .  . 

"The  universities  are  and  desire  to  remain  non-political  corporations. 
And  they  will  be  particularly  sensitive  on  the  question  of  propagandism 
for  the  social-democratic  party  because  of  the  peculiar  character  of  this 
party:  it  is,  more  than  any  other  political  party,  a  'sect'  with  a  'doctrine* 
and  'correct  tenets.'  This  fact  was  again  brought  out  at  the  recent 
Liibeck  convention:  not  only  the  member's  political  action,  but  even  his 
literary  and  scientific  work  is  subject  to  the  approval  and  disapproval  of 
the  party.  This  follows  necessarily  from  the  fact  that  the  party  plat- 
form contains  a  dogmatic  system,  that  there  is  'scientific'  socialism  or 
socialistic  science.  There  has  never  been  'scientific'  liberalism  or  conserva- 
tism; these  parties  have  no  'system,'  but  merely  a  practical  political  pro- 
gram. The  social-democracy  aims  to  be  more  than  a  political  party;  it  has 
a  doctrina  fidei  to  which  it  binds  its  members  or  attempts  to  bind  them. 


270  FREEDOM   OF  LEARNING 

.  .  .  When  the  social-democracy  ceases  to  be  a  sect  with  an  iron-clad 
doctrine,  when  it  stops  prating  about  the  revolution  or  playing  upon  the 
double  meaning  of  the  word,  when  it  assumes  the  attitude  of  a  reform 
party  and  aims  to  reform  existing  institutions  by  bringing  about  complete 
equality  before  the  law  and  by  elevating  the  moral  and  intellectual  con- 
ditions of  the  lower  classes,  then  it  will  no  longer  be  possible  to  justify 
the  state  in  treating  this  party  differently  from  the  others." 

Freedom  of  learning  is  a  correlate  of  freedom  of  teaching  in  the 
German  university.  There,  indeed,  lernfreiheit  is  even  more  abso- 
lute than  lehrfreiheit.  Of  course,  the  German  faith  and  practice 
in  this  matter  does  not  apply  precisely  to  the  undergraduate  work 
of  the  American  college.  The  leader  is  referred  to  Paulsen's  ex- 
cellent chapter  on  the  subject.  I  quote  a  few  sentences  to  indicate 
the  attitude  of  the  most  genuine  spirit  of  freedom  of  teaching 
toward  freedom  of  learning: 

"The  liberty  to  pass  freely  from  one  institution  to  another,  to  which 
our  university  system  owes  so  much,  makes  a  rigid  regulation  of  the 
course  impossible;  no  one  will  wish  to  hinder  a  student,  who  has  the 
opportunity  of  hearing  an  excellent  instructor,  from  taking  a  course  of 
lectures  under  him  somewhat  before  the  time  and  postponing  to  do  so, 
another  course  for  another  university.  .  .  .  The  individual  must  be 
left  to  find  his  own  way,  though  this  does  not  mean  that  he  should  not 
seek  private  advice;  it  rather  presupposes  it.  ...  If  we  really  wish 
to  maintain  our  freedom  of  learning,  if  we  do  not  desire  a  system  of  uni- 
versity instruction  modelled  after  that  of  the  schools,  we  must  have  the 
courage  to  desire  a  thoroughgoing  freedom  at  the  cost  of  any  possible 
abuse  of  it.  We  must  recognize  that  freedom  without  the  possibility  of 
its  abuse  is  an  impossibility.  .  .  .  The  relation  between  teachers  and 
students  is  now  throughout  so  wholesome  because  it  is  a  voluntary  one; 
the  student  who  cannot  get  what  he  wants  in  the  lecture  room  remains 
away,  a  proceeding  in  all  respects  better  for  him  and  all  concerned  than 
a  forced  physical  presence  on  his  part. 

"And  this  also  would  have  to  be  considered.  If,  instead  of  voluntary 
lectures  and  scientific  exercises,  obligatory  exercises  and  compulsory  work 
were  substituted,  would  men  who  amount  to  anything  as  scientific  investi- 
gators and  writers  be  willing  to  become  university  instructors?  Does  any 


FREEDOM   OF   LEARNING  271 

one  really  believe  that  men  like  Wolf  and  Boeckh,  Ranke  and  Waitz, 
Savigny  and  Gneist,  J.  Mtiller  and  Helmholtz  would  consent  to  spend  their 
lives  in  setting  tasks  and  correcting  work  for  participants  in  compulsory 
exercises?  What  the  elimination  of  such  names  from  a  university  would 
mean  need  not  be  further  discussed.  If  you  turn  the  university  into  a 
school — well,  then  it  ceases  to  be  what  it  has  been  thus  far:  a  place  for 
scientific  investigation;  the  distinguished  scholars  and  investigators  would 
retire  to  the  Academy,  and  the  same  separation  that  now  exists  in  France 
would  come  about  here.  .  .  . 

"The  student  ought  to  learn  the  difficult  art  of  controlling  himself,  of 
working  spontaneously,  so  to  speak;  and  this  cannot  be  acquired  under 
compulsion.  .  .  .  The  years  at  the  university  are  the  test  which  decides 
whether  a  young  fellow  has  in  him  the  making  of  a  man  who  can  guide 
and  rule  himself,  and  then  also  others.  .  .  .  Here  a  man  who  has  too 
little  to  offer,  either  in  the  way  of  intellectual  gifts  or  energy  of  will, 
makes  a  failure;  which  is  not  a  loss  for  society,  but  rather  a  guarantee 
against  intellectual  and  moral  insufficiency.  ...  I  am  well  aware 
that  by  this  process  even  young  men,  who,  with  proper  care,  would  have 
developed  into  very  serviceable  officials,  come  to  grief  and  ruin.  They  rep- 
resent the  price  which  we  must  pay  for  the  school  of  freedom.  It  is  costlyr 
but  cannot  be  had  for  less;  the  young  must  be  exposed  to  such  risks  if 
we  are  to  have  men.  The  university  is  not  a  kindergarten.  .  .  .  Such 
is  the  attitude  of  the  German  university.  And  it  is  this  very  feature 
which,  in  later  life,  arouses  the  true  man's  gratitude  that  he  was  not  led 
about  by  the  hand  like  a  schoolboy,  but  was  allowed  to  find  his  own 
way.  .  .  . 

"Schleiermacher  in  his  Gelegentliche  Gedanken  declares  that  learning  is 
not  the  real  purpose  of  the  university,  but  the  purpose  is  'to  arouse,  if 
possible,  an  entirely  new  life,  a  higher,  truly  scientific  spirit  in  the  youths. 
But  this  cannot  be  done  by  compulsion;  the  attempt  can  only  be  made 
in  the  atmosphere  of  complete  intellectual  freedom.'  .  .  . 

"A  really  typical  example  of  a  university  course  arranged  with  regard 
to  pedagogical  considerations  is  supplied  by  the  French  law  faculties. 
There  is  a  rigid  curriculum  in  which  the  courses  are  prescribed  for  each 
year;  there  can  be  no  chance  of  error  in  the  choice  of  a  teacher  either, 
since  there  is  always  only  one  teacher  for  each  subject;  the  instruction 
must  be  in  accordance  with  a  program  which  the  instructor  formerly 
received,  complete,  from  the  ministry  of  education,  but  which  he  must 


272  FREEDOM   OF   LEARNING 

now  submit  to  it  for  approval;  attendance  upon  lectures  and  exercises  is 
compulsory;  an  annual  report  is  sent  to  the  student's  father;  finally  there 
is  a  graduated  series  of  examinations,  intimately  connected  with  the 
several  courses,  .  .  .  and  in  order  to  promotion  to  the  next  higher 
course  they  must  be  passed  successfully.  .  .  .  And  the  result? 

"According  to  L.  von  Savigny's  report,  which  no  one  who  expects  any- 
thing from  examinations  during  each  semester  should  fail  to  read,  even 
the  purely  external  results  are  far  from  satisfactory.  .  .  .  Owing  to 
the  frequency  of  the  examinations  and  the  little  time  lost  by  failures  in 
any  one  of  them  (early  opportunity  for  re-examination  is  allowed),  failure 
to  pass  is  not  taken  seriously,  is  not  looked  upon  as  a  serious  catastrophe, 
as  with  us,  but  only  as  requiring  a  longer  term  in  a  class.  ...  In 
Paris  each  professor  is  compelled  to  devote  from  400  to  600  hours  annually 
to  examinations,  6000  examinations  being  given.  I  do  not  think  we  hav« 
cause  to  look  with  envy  upon  such  results.  But  the  effects  of  the  system 
extend  even  further.  The  purely  scholastic  character  of  the  examinations 
exerts  a  reflex  influence  upon  the  instruction  given  and  the  character  of 
the  work  done  by  the  students.  Independent  work  and  thought  is  never 
achieved,  scarcely  aimed  at;  the  object  is  to  learn  by  rote  with  the  exami- 
nations in  view.  Hence  the  schoolboy-like  way  of  looking  at  things  that 
characterizes  the  student  to  the  end,  appearing  even  in  the  work  done  for 
the  doctorate;  mere  reproduction,  without  any  real  independence  and  pro- 
ductive power.  .  .  . 

"The  infallible  system  which  makes  all  the  students  reasonable,  indus- 
trious, and  virtuous  has  not  yet  been  invented;  the  German  system  of  free- 
dom doee  not  do  it.  But  the  systems  of  restraint,  supervision,  and  exami- 
nations accomplish  as  little;  even  the  most  careful  precautions  are  unavail- 
ing. On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  question  whether  the  strongest  and  most 
•capable  students  who  thrive  under  the  free  system,  are  not  the  very  ones 
>who  would  suffer  under  the  system  of  restraint,  and  whether  this  latter 
would  not  be  a  worse  injury  than  the  former." 

It  was  the  Englishman  Matthew  Arnold  who,  after  deliberate 
investigation,  concluded:  "The  French  university  has  no  liberty, 
and  the  English  universities  have  no  science;  the  German  univer- 
sities have  both." 


A    CRUCIAL   TEST  273 

I  add  an  observation  which  seems  to  me  to  be  a  peculiarly  strik- 
ing illustration.  It  may  be  regarded  as  the  "acid  test"  of  the  gen- 
uineness of  any  spirit  of  freedom  of  teaching  on  the  part  of  the 
teachers.  It  deserves  to  be  pondered  in  university  circles  in  Amer- 
ica: 

In  1820  George  Bancroft  was  the  third  American  to  receive  the 
degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy  from  German  universities.     In  a 
statement  written  in  1871,  he  tells  of  his  return  to  his  native  land 
and  his  immediate  efforts  to  induce  Harvard  College  to  separate 
clearly  its  graduate  courses,  so  as  to  begin  the  development  of  "our 
colleges  into  universities."     After  telling  of  his  failure  in  that 
attempt,  he  continues:     "I  then  applied  ...  for  leave  to  read 
lectures  on  History  in  the  university.    At  Gottingen  or  at  Berlin  I 
had  the  right,  after  a  few  preliminary  formalities,,  to  deliver  such 
a  course  .  .  .  My  request  wes  declined  by  my  own  alma  mater." 
This  occurred  nearly  a  hundred  years  ago ;  since  that  time  "univer- 
sities" have  sprung  up  in  every  State  of  the  Union,  and  some  of 
them  have  grown  on  munificent  resources  to  giant  size, — and  there 
has  been  much  talk  about  freedom  of  teaching.     Yet  if  another 
Bancroft,  to-day,  were  to  repeat  his  offer  to  teach  voluntary  hearers, 
as  a  private  docent,  it  would  be  likewise  disallowed.     At  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  in  its  early  days,  and  at  several  other  univer- 
sities, incipient  attempts  to  allow  private  docents  have  been  made, 
but  with  no  permanent  effect.     The  faculties  of  American  univer- 
sities, I  say,  should  ponder  these  facts.     There  is  need  for  some 
searching  of  hearts.     The  facts  are:     In  the  German  universities 
a  large  part  of  the  professor's  remuneration  comes  from  the  fees 
of  voluntary  students,  yet  any  young  philosophiae  doctor  mav  secure 
the  right  of  lecturing  in  the  university  simply  by  proving  that  he 
is  competent.     He  receives  no  stipend  from  the  university,  but  he 
may  take  from  every  professorial  competitor  what  fees  he  is  able  to 
attract.     That  is  freedom  of  teaching.     The  degree  of  the  Germao 
university  signifies  knowledge ,  and  the  German  professor  is  con- 


274  IDEALS 

tent  with  testing  to  his  satisfaction  the  candidate's  knowledge,  pro- 
vided he  may  assume  from  its  having  been  sought  in  true  universi- 
ties that  a  proper  spirit  and  attitude  accompany  the  scholarship. 
Except  for  the  requirement  that  university  degrees  must  be  sought 
in  universities,  his  professional  code  disdains  jealousy  and  despises 
compulsion  as  to  the  times,  places,  or  persons  concerned  in  the 
attainment  of  proficiency.  Also,  the  same  principles  bestow  upon 
the  proficient  freedom  to  teach. 

It  need  not  be  inferred  that  the  difference  in  professional  atti- 
tude and  practice  in  the  two  countries  is  caused  by  great  moral 
differences  in  their  teachers  as  individuals.  It  is  the  consequence 
on  the  one  side  of  a  code  of  professional  ethics  which  recognizes  and 
enforces  responsibility  as  well  as  privilege;  and,  on  the  other  side, 
of  an  inchoate  demand  for  privilege  without  clearly  recognized 
responsibility.  The  personally  characteristic  impulses  of  a  man 
living  under  the  sway  of  a  clear  ethical  code  may  be  no  more  exalted 
than  those  of  one  not  so  influenced,  yet  his  conduct  will  be  more 
consistent.  Nevertheless,  it  must  be  understood  that  virtue  is 
rot  abstract,  but  is  realized  or  consists  in  right  conduct,  and  that 
such  conduct  (unless  it  be  the  sham  of  hypocrisy)  tends  to  realize 
the  steadfast  disposition  which  constitutes  the  virtue.  He  that 
doeth  shall  know  of  the  doctrine. 

Ideals 

To  have  ideals  is  simply  to  have  an  unclouded  mind — to  know 
what,  you  desire  and  are  striving  for.  More  harm  than  good  is 
likely  to  come  from  unenlightened  effort.  Effort  without  ideals  is 
anarchy;  effort  under  false  ideals  is  thraldom.  The  ideals  that 
should  be  upheld  and  enforced  by  university  faculties  need  not  be 
formulated  with  extensive  definitencss,  but  their  central  principles 
should  be  clear  and  luminous.  Principles  abide;  application?:  vary 
infinitely.  It  is  a  spirit  and  attitude,  not  a  dogma  that  is  needed. 

The  genuine  principles  may  be  viewed  from  many  different  ap- 


IDEALS  275 

proaches,  but  all  true  ways  of  access  will  converge.  Right  state- 
ments from  different  standpoints,  upon  analysis,  will  be  seen  to 
involve  or  to  imply  each  the  others  if  they  are  fundamental,  and, 
in  any  case,  to  harmonize  with  and  reinforce  each  other.  Let  us 
consider  one  statement  which  is  fundamental,  and  therefore  far 
more  comprehensive  in  its  implications  than  it  may  seem  to  the 
thoughtless  or  the  inexperienced.  President  Eliot  has  declared  that 
there  are  three  essential  characteristics  of  a  true  university :  Free- 
dom in  the  choice  of  studies ;  opportunity  to  win  distinction  in  spe- 
cial lines  of  study;  a  discipline  which  imposes  on  each  individual 
the  responsibility  for  forming  his  own  habits  and  guiding  his  own 
conduct. 

The  institutions  which  have  erred  least  from  the  requirements 
thus  stated  are  recognized  instinctively  as  the  noblest  and  soundest 
of  our  universities.  It  was  due  to  its  foundation  upon  and  living 
loyally  to  precisely  those  principles  that  the  pecuniarilv  poorest 
of  the  leading  universities  in  this  country  has  been  one  of  the  great- 
est and  most  influential.  The  principles  of  President  Eliot's 
ideal  were — precisely  and  expressly — the  principles  avowed  for  and 
by  the  University  of  Virginia  at  its  foundation.  "For  the  first 
fifty  years  of  its  historv,"  says  President  Pritchett,  "the  University 
of  Virginia  was  conducted  in  a  larger  spirit  of  freedom,  and  had 
about  it  more  of  the  atmosphere  of  a  true  university  than  any 

other  institution  in  thi?  country."  Speaking  again  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia,  in  another  report,  he  says : 

"Beautiful  housing  had  been  but  one  of  Jefferson's  cares.  For  the  pro- 
fessors he  had  ransacked  the  United  States  and  Europe.  .  .  .  Univer- 
sity methods  were  in  practice  from  the  day  of  opening  [March  7,  1825], 
teachers  and  students  working  together  with  a  minimum  of  reliance  on 
text-books  or  other  formal  aids.  .  .  .  There  were  no  entrance  require- 
ments, the  period  of  study  leading  to  a  degree  was  undetermined.  The 
students  were  not  divided  into  classes.  But  although  anybody  could  ma- 
triculate, once  inside,  the  matriculant  found  examinations  fixed  and  search- 
ing. .  .  .  Rigorous  tests  preserved  from  prolonged  residence  those 


276  IDEALS 

unable  to  profit,  and  protected  the  value  of  the  degrees.  This  was  in 
accordance  with  Jefferson's  theory  of  remitting  to  the  individual  the  chief 
care  of  his  own  interests.  .  .  .  The  university  always  upheld  rigidly 
the  value  of  its  degrees,  and  by  means  of  the  group  system  maintained 
balanced  and  harmonious  training  while  allowing  the  widest  election.  .  .  . 
"The  civil  war  found  the  university  in  great  prosperity;  604  students 
were  in  residence  in  the  winter  of  1859-60.  But  in  1861  almost  the  entire 
student  body  enlisted,  and  three  professors  accepted  commissions." 

In  recent  years  the  University  of  Virginia  has  established  stand- 
ard entrance  requirements  and  the  ordinary  "classes."  The  former 
is  not  repugnant  to  the  fundamental  principles  we  are  con- 
sidering, and  it  is  an  appropriate  consequence  of  the  systemization 
of  the  secondary  schools.  The  latter  is  questionable.  College 
"classes,"  as  commonly  administered,  tend  to  a  'lock-step'  for  indi- 
viduals of  very  different  abilities  and  to  a  lowering  of  the  degree 
toward  the  minimum  of  tolerance  for  residence  during  a  set 
period  of  time.  This  question  is  considered  directly  on  its  merits 
in  the  next  chapter,  as  is  also,  the  matter  of  entrance  requirements. 
President  Pritchett  remarks  that,  "only  the  high  intellectual  tone 
generally  prevalent  at  Charlottesville  prevented  [the  absence  of 
entrance  requirements]  from  lowering  the  distinctlv  university 
atmosphere."  Of  course,  that  is  the  only  explanation;  but  a  simi- 
lar tone  would  have  the  same  effect  always  and  anywhere  else. 

The  history  of  the  University  of  Virginia  has  strongly  corrobo- 
rated the  philosophical  grounds  for  its  ideals.  Its  principles,  which 
were  unique  in  1825,*  have  been  adopted  in  form,  if  not  in  spirit. 

*In  order  that  credit  be  given  where  credit  is  due,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  at  the  reformation  of  thev  College  of  William  and  Mary  in 
1779,  at  least  one  of  the  principles  which  were  realized  in  1825  in  the 
University  of  Virginia  had  been  promulgated.  But  the  credit  for  the 
action  of  the  earlier  college  probably  also  belongs,  as  President  Foster 
has  shown,  to  Thomas  Jefferson.  William  and  Mary's  action  is  described 
by  President  Madison  in  a  letter  dated  August  27,  1780,  quoted  by  Foster 
in  his  book,  Administration  of  the  College  Curriculum:  "The  Doors  of 
ye  University  are  open  to  all,  nor  is  even  a  knowledge  in  ye  ant.  Lan- 
guages a  previous  Requisite  for  Entrance.  The  Students  have  ye  liberty 


IDEALS  277 

by  nearly  all  our  universities.  Harvard  adopted  them  more  than 
forty  years  ago,  and  President  Eliot  championed  them  as  essential 
for  a  true  university.  Professor  Archibald  Gary  Coolidge  of  Har- 
vard University,  speaking  in  Virginia  in  1905  said: 

"At  the  present  day  what  is  termed  the  elective  system  of  studies  has 
found  its  way  in  one  form  or  another  into  most  of  our  higher  institutions 
of  learning.  .  .  .  When  eighty  years  ago  the  University  of  Virginia 
Was  founded  on  a  basis  broader  than  that  of  any  other  college  in  the 
country,  the  elective  system,  which  you  alone  at  that  early  day  dared  to 
introduce,  was,  indeed,  a  startling  innovation,  one  that  long  could  find  but 
few  imitators.  .  .  .  Time  has  vindicated  your  wisdom  and  the  fore- 
sight of  your  founder.  The  principle  for  which  you  contended  has  become 
a  common  heritage.  You  have  shown  that  a  broad  road  to  knowledge 
need  not  be  an  easy  one,  for  you  have  kept  your  standards  so  high  that 
you  have  discouraged  many  an  applicant  who  would  gladly  have  won  your 
degree  if  it  could  have  been  obtained  at  any  other  cost  than  that  of  long 
and  patient  toil.  All  this  we  of  the  sister  universities  appreciate — per- 
haps not  without  jealousy. 

"There  is,  moreover,  another  principle  which  we  who  live  at  a  distance 
associate  with  the  University  of  Virginia.  High  as  she  has  put  knowledge 
as  her  ideal,  she  has  put  something  else  higher  still.  She  has  recognized 
from  the  beginning  that  her  institution  which  has  charge  of  youth,  to  mold 
them  for  after-life,  fulfills  but  a  part  of  its  duty  if  it  ministers  merely 
to  their  intellects.  The  distinguishing  mark  of  its  graduates  should  be 
not  only  learning,  but  character.  .  .  .  This  truth,  which  in  our  mod- 


of  attending  whom  they  please,  and  in  what  order  they  please,  or  all  ye 
diffr.  Lectures  in  a  term  if  they  think  proper.  The  time  of  taking  Degrees 
was  formerly  ye  same  as  in  Cambridge,  but  now  depends  upon  ye  Qualifi- 
cations of  ye  candidate.  He  has  a  certain  course  pointed  out  for  his  first 
Degree,  and  also  for  ye  next.  When  Master  of  Either,  ye  Degree  is  con- 
ferred." This  statement,  says  President  Foster,  "strikes  like  a  thunder- 
bolt into  the  petrified  old-world  college  customs  that  had  up  to  this  time 
shackled  the  college  curriculum  of  the  new  world.  .  .  .  Although  this 
new  plan  of  studies  for  the  College  of  William  and  Mary  was  not  the 
Elective  System  as  we  now  understand  it, — since  certain  courses  were 
pointed  out  for  certain  degrees, — yet  the  gates  of  the  college  were  opened 
wide;  and  while  the  Revolutionary  forces  were  achieving  political  freedom 
on  the  battlefield,  academic  freedom  was  achieved  in  the  field  of  higher 
education." 


278  IDEALS 

ern  striving  for  efficiency  sometimes  appears  to  be  dropping  into  the  back- 
ground, has  never  been  forgotten  here.  Who  is  there  in  the  United  States 
who  knows  of  the  University  of  Virginia  and  does  not  think  of  her  as 
the  home  of  the  honor  system,  of  the  priceless  possession  of  which  others 
may  well  be  envious?  To  you  it  seems  as  natural  as  the  air  you  breathe. 
To  those  less  fortunate  in  this  respect  it  remains,  even  if  different  condi- 
tions make  it  difficult  of  attainment,  an  ideal,  an  encouragement  towards 
a  better  state  of  things  in  the  future.  This  is  well,  for  never  in  our 
history  has  there  been  a  greater  need  of  a  steadfast  maintenance  of  the 
principles  of  character  for  which  you  have  stood  with  such  noble  results. 
In  this  day  of  triumprant  materialism,  when  faiths  are  crumbling  and 
nothing  goes  unquestioned,  when  success  at  any  price  is  the  one  achieve- 
ment that  seems  to  appeal  to  a  large  portion  of  the  community,  when 
consciences  are  weakened  by  casuistry,  when  simplicity  is  looked  upon  as 
foolishness,  and  when  the  almighty  dollar  tends  openly  or  insidiously  to 
enslave  us  all,  may  the  University  of  Virginia  with  an  ever  enlarged 
sphere  of  influence  stand  as  she  always  has  stood  for  the  principle  of  the 
Scotch  poet.  'The  man's  the  gold  for  all  that.'  " 

Much  confusion  of  ideas  and  purposes  has  arisen  amid  the 
expanding  and  diversifying  enterprises  of  the  modern  university. 
In  reaching  out  to  increase  and  multiply  its  services  in  so  many 
new  spheres,  some  essential  things  are  frequently  lost  sight  of. 
In  so  far  a.s  this  occurs,  the  institution  falls  into  many  disorders, 
consequent  upon  the  loss  of  vision  and  in  proportion  to  the  degree 
of  blindness  with  which  its  rulers  are  stricken.  There  has  never 
heretofore  been  a  time  when  there  was  such  urgent  need  for  men 
who  might  be  called  statesmen-educators, — men  who  combine  with 
expert  knowledge  of  education  both  as  a  process  and  as  a  result,  the 
philosophical  powers  of  mind  that  enable  one  to  comprehend  the 
principles  of  organization  and  administration,  and  to  keep  in  view, 
amid  an  infinite  variety  of  details,  those  things  which  are  essential. 
Ability  of  this  kind  seems  to  be  either  peculiarly  rare  in  America,, 
or  men  having  such  ability  are,  with  us,  rarely  selected  as  leaders. 


FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES  279 

The  .Final  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  University  Educa- 
tion in  London*  (dated  March  27,  1913,  but  not  obtainable  until 
some  months  later)  is  a  work  that  should  be  read  in  this  country 
by  all  who  are  charged  with  responsibility  concerning  the  govern- 
ment of  universities.  The  particular  problems  dealt  with  have,  in- 
deed, little  direct  bearing  upon  conditions  extant  in  this  country; 
but  if  superficial  opportunists  could  hold  themselves  down  to  a 
perusal  of  that  painstaking  work,  they  might  be  impressed  by  the 
efficacy  and  utility  of  fundamental  principles  in  guiding  those 
enlightened  by  them  through  mazes  of  confusing  details  and  con- 
flicting claims.  Nowhere  else  in  the  world  is  presented  so  diffi- 
cult and  complex  a  problem  concerning  educational  affairs,  as 
that  of  rightly  organizing  the  University  of  London  with  its  con- 
stituent colleges  and  legion  of  allied  institutions.  Some  passages 
from  the  admirable  report  by  the  commissioners  will  indicate 
several  essential  principles  applicable  always  and  everywhere. 

''The    Nature    and    Work    of    the    University 

"We  have  described  what  appear  to  us  to  be  the  main  defects  in  the 
present  organisation  of  the  University,  and  we  think  it  must  be  clear 
from  what  we  have  said  -that  the  University  cannot  work  well  so  long 
as  the  present  relations  of  the  Internal  and  External  sides  continue  as 
they  are  now.  .  .  .  Experience  has  shown  that  the  Gresham  Commis- 
sion were  mistaken  in  believing  it  was  in  any  way  possible  to  organise 
a  homogeneous  university  by  connecting  a  number  of  financially  and 
educationally  independent  institutions  witli  a  central  degree-giving  body 
endowed  with  the  limited  power  and  influence  possessed  by  such  a  univer- 
sity as  they  proposed.  .  .  . 

"Much  that  is  defective  in  the  present  organisation  of  the  University 
of  London  can  be  traced  ultimately  to  confusion  of  thought  about  what 
things  are  essential  to  university  education  and  what  things  are  non- 
essential.  For  example,  whatever  importance  may  he  attached  to  exam- 
inations, an  examining  board  can  never  constitute  a  university ;  and, 
again,  technical  instruction  and  advanced  courses  of  study  may  be  multi- 


*  Published  by  His  Majesty's  Stationery  Office;  to  be  purchased  directly, 
or  from  the  agencies  in  the  United  States  and  abroad  of  T.  Fisher  Unwin, 
London,  W.  C.,  price  2  shillings. 


280  ESSENTIALS  OF  UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION 

plied  indefinitely  without  providing  university  education.  Of  course,  any 
educational  institution  may  be  called  a  university;  but,  as  Dr.  Rashdall 
says,  'to  degrade  the  name  of  a  University,  is  to  degrade  our  highest 
educational  ideal.'  We  do  not  mean,  however,  that  what  we  call  non- 
essential  things  ought  not  to  be  provided,  but  only  that  they  can  be 
done  without  a  university,  although  some  of  them  can  be  better  done  by  a 
university  and  in  as  close  connexion  as  possible  with  the  work  which 
only  a  university  can  do.  The  history  of  the  rapid  growth  of  university 
institutions  in  this  country  during  the  last  thirty  years  would  no  doubt 
explain  much  of  the  confusion  of  thought  to  which  we  have  referred, 
but  a  large  part  of  it  is  due  to  the  history  of  the  University  of  London 
itself.  .  .  .  The  demand  for  higher  technical  instruction  made  itself 
felt  throughout  the  Western  world  in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  when  the  modern  universities  of  this  country  were  coming  into 
existence.  It  is  possible  that  if  the  organisation  of  secondary  schools 
in  England  had  been  more  advanced,  and  if  there  had  been,  as  there 
was  in  Germany,  a  large  number  of  universities  with  a  settled  scope 
and  policy,  the  demand  might  have  been  met  here  as  it  was  in  Germany, 
by  institutions  distinct  from  the  universities.  .  .  .  Perhaps  it  is  yet 
to  be  proved  whether  the  definite  professional  outlook  of  some  of  the 
modern  English  universities  is  consistent  with  the  wide  intellectual  train- 
ing which  university  education  has  always  been  understood  to  imply. 
We  have  no  doubt,  however,  that  any  branch  of  knowledge  which  is  suffi- 
ciently developed  and  systematised  to  be  capable  of  scientific  treatment 
may  be  taught  and  studied  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  part  of  a  university 
education.  The  differentiae  of  university  education  do  not  consist  in  the 
nature  of  the  particular  subjects  studied,  or  in  their  difficulty  or  abstruse- 
ness,  but  rather  in  the  nature  and  aim  of  the  students'  work,  and  in  the 
conditions  under  which  it  is  done. 

"The  Essentials  of  University  Education 

"In  the  first  place,  it  is  essential  that  the  regular  students  of  the 
University  should  be  able  to  work  in  intimate  and  constant  association 
with  their  fellow  students,  not  only  of  the  same  but  of  different  Faculties, 
and  also  in  close  contact  with  their  teachers.  The  University  should  be 
organised  on  this  basis,  and  should  regard  it  as  the  ordinary  and  normal 
state  of  things.  This  is  impossible,  however,  when  any  considerable  pro- 
portion of  the  students  are  not  fitted  by  their  previous  training  to  receive 
a  university  education,  and  therefore  do  not  and  cannot  take  their  place 
in  the  common  life  of  the  university  as  a  community  of  teachers  and 


ESSENTIALS  OF  UNIVERSITY  EDUCATION  281 

students,  but,  as  far  as  their  intellectual  education  is  concerned,  continue 
iu  a  state  of  pupilage,  and  receive  instruction  of  much  the  same  kind 
as  at  a  school,  though  under  conditions  of  greater  individual  free- 
dom. .  .  .  It  is  essential  that  the  students  and  teachers  should  be 
brought  together  in  living  intercourse  in  the  daily  work  of  the  Univer- 
sity. From  the  time  the  undergraduate  enters  the  University  he  should 
find  himself  a  member  of  a  community  in  which  he  has  his  part  to  play. 
The  teaching  and  learning  should  be  combined  through  the  active  and  per- 
sonal co-operation  of  teachers  and  students.  .  .  . 

"The  main  business  of  a  university  is  the  training  of  its  undergrad- 
uates, and  it  is  clear  that  university  study  will  be  best  pursued  if  the 
students,  or  at  any  rate  a  large  proportion  of  them,  are  of  an  age  when 
fresh  intellectual  impressions  and  habits  of  mind  are  easily  formed, 
and  if  their  main  purpose  during  the  period  of  their  student  life  is  the 
training  which  they  hope  to  receive  from  the  university.  A  university 
education  is  most  effective  when  it  is  given  before  the  struggles  and 
preoccupations  of  life  in  the  world  have  begun.  It  is  a  training  which 
ought  to  make  great  demands  both  upon  the  intellectual  energy  and 
upon  the  time  of  the  student;  on  his  energy,  because  he  is  learning 
the  methods  of  independent  work  carried  on  in  an  inquiring  spirit;  on 
his  time,  because  mental  habits  cannot  be  formed  rapidly,  nor  if  the 
mind  is  distracted  by  other  cares  and  interests,  and  because,  if  he  is  to 
get  more  from  the  instruction  of  the  class-room  or  laboratory  than 
notes  in  preparation  for  an  examination,  a  considerable  amount  of  leisure 
is  essential  for  independent  reading,  for  common  life  with  fellow  students 
and  teachers,  and  above  all  for  the  reflective  thought  necessary  to  the 
rather  slow  process  of  assimilation. 

"In  the  second  place,  the  work  in  a  university  by  teachers  and  students 
should  differ  in  its  nature  and  aim  both  from  the  work  of  a  secondary 
school  and  from  that  of  a  technical  or  a  purely  professional  school.  In  the 
secondary  school  it  is  expected  that  a  knowledge  of  many  things  should 
be  acquired  while  the  mind  is  specially  receptive,  and  during  this  stage 
of  education  definite  tasks  are  rightly  prescribed.  But  even  more  im- 
portant than  knowledge  is  the  moral  and  mental  training  needed  for 
later  success  in  study  or  in  life,  which  the  pupils  gain  by  the  orderly 
exercise  of  all  their  activities  demanded  in  a  well  arranged  school. 
In  the  technical  or  professional  school  the  theoretical  teaching  is  so 
closely  connected  with  the  requirements  of  the  art  to  be  acquired,  or  the 
profession  or  calling  for  which  the  pupil  desires  to  prepare  himself, 


282  UNIVERSITY  TEACHING 

that  it  is  limited  and  directed  largely  to  the  application  of  ascertained 
facts  to  practical  purposes,  or  it  may  be  to  the  preparation  for  a  quali- 
fying examination. 

"In  a  university  the  aim  is  different,  and  the  whole  organization  ought 
to  be  adapted  to  the  attainment  of  the  end  in  view.  Knowledge  is,  of 
course,  the  foundation  and  the  medium  of  all  intellectual  education,  but 
in  a  university  knowledge  should  be  pursued  not  merely  for  the  sake  of 
the  information  to  be  acquired,  but  for  its  own  extension  and  always  with 
reference  to  the  attainment  of  truth.  This  alters  the  whole  attitude  of  the 
mind.  Scientific  thought  becomes  a  habit,  and  almost  incidentally  in- 
tellectual power  is  developed.  Modern  universities  are  called  into  exist- 
ence principally  by  the  social  need  for  professional  training,  and  probably 
most  of  the  students  enter  the  University  with  a  purely  utilitarian  object; 
but  they  should  find  themselves  in  a  community  of  workers,  devoted 
to  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake,  and  tenacious  of  this  ideal 
against  all  external  pressure  of  material  and  social  advantages.  Academic 
instruction  is  primarily  purely  theoretical  and  scientific,  and  yet  it  is 
not  only  the  best  training  for  the  conduct  of  life,  but  also  the  best,  if 
not  the  necessary  introduction  to  all  those  professions  and  callings  of 
which  it  may  be  said  that  practice  and  progress  are  closely  connected 
and  constantly  reacting  on  each  other.  Its  effect  in  relation  to  the  pro- 
fession or  calling  which  the  student  has  in  view  is  that  he  brings  to  it 
not  only  the  discipline,  training,  knowledge,  and  resourcefulness  he  has 
acquired,  but  also  the  intellectual  mastery  of  the  principles  involved  which 
enables  him  throughout  his  life  to  appreciate  and  apply  all  advances  in 
science  that  bear  upon  it. 

"The  following  description  of  university  teaching  given  by  the  in- 
spectors of  the  Board  of  Education  in  a  Report  of  1910  appears  to  us 
to  agree  in  substance  with  what  we  have  said,  and  in  some  respects  to 
express  our  meaning  in  greater  detail  and  completeness : 

"  'We  may  assume.'  they  say,  'that  university  teaching  is  teaching 
suited  to  adults;  that  it  is  scientific,  detached,  and  impartial 
in  character;  that  it  aims  not  so  much  at  filling  the  mind  of  the 
student  with  facts  or  theories  as  at  calling  forth  his  own  individ- 
uality, and  stimulating  him  to  mental  effort;  that  it  accustoms  him 
to  the  critical  study  of  the  leading  authorities,  with,  perhaps, 
occasional  references  to  first-hand  sources  of  information;  and 
that  it  implants  in  his  mind  a  standard  of  thoroughness,  and  gives 
him  a  sense  of  the  difficulty  as  well  as  of  the  value  of  truth. 


TEACHING  AND  RESEARCH  283 

The  student  so  trained  learns  to  distinguish  between  what  may 
fairly  be  called  matter  of  fact,  and  what  is  certainly  mere  matter  of 
opinion,  between  the  white  light  and  the  coloured.  He  becomes 
accustomed  to  distinguish  issues,  and  to  look  at  separate  questions 
each  on  its  own  merits  and  without  an  eye  to  their  bearing  on  some 
cherished  theory.  He  learns  to  state  fairly,  and  even  sympatheti- 
cally, the  position  of  those  to  whose  practical  conclusions  he  is  most 
stoutly  opposed.  He  becomes  able  to  examine  a  suggested  idea,  and 
see  what  comes  of  it,  before  accepting  it  or  rejecting  it.  Finally, 
without  necessarily  becoming  an  original  student,  he  gains  an 
insight  into  the  conditions  under  which  original  research  is  carried 
on.  He  is  able  to  weigh  evidence,  to  follow  and  criticise  argu- 
ment, and  put  his  own  value  on  authorities.' 

"In  the  third  place,  it  is  essential  that  the  higher  work  of  the  University 
should  be  closely  associated  with  the  undergraduate  work.  Proposals 
which  tend  to  their  separation  take  two  forms.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is 
proposed  that  the  bulk  of  the  undergraduates  should  be  distributed  over 
a  large  number  of  centres,  most  of  which  would  be  limited  to  instruction 
in  one  or  two  Faculties  only,  while  the  teaching  of  the  University  Pro- 
fessors in  the  more  central  colleges  should  be  organized  with  primary 
reference  to  the  needs  of  the  post-graduate  or  advanced  student,  and 
should  provide  for  undergraduates,  if  at  all,  only  as  a  secondary  and 
entirely  subordinate  consideration.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  the 
proposal  of  the  Council  for  External  Students,  to  which  we  have  already 
referred,  for  the  creation  of  a  series  of  institutes  for  research  and  higher 
learning  to  which  the  best  students  would  pass  from  the  colleges  and 
other  institutions  where  they  had  received  their  undergraduate  training. 
Neither  of  these  proposals  commends  itself  to  us  as  a  desirable  policy, 
and  both  of  them  appear  to  involve  a  half-conscious  admission  that  the 
great  majority  of  the  students  who  at  present  take  the  bachelor's  degree 
of  London  University  do  not  receive  a  university  education  at  all.  But 
this  is  the  greatest  evil  which  results  from  the  present  organization  of  the 
University,  and  the  one  which  it  is  most  important  to  remove  in  the 
interests  of  higher  education  in  London. 

"No  one  suggests  that  research  should  be  divorced  from  teaching,  but 
for  various  reasons  proposals  are  made  for  organizing  the  higher  and 
more  advanced  work  of  the  University  separately  from  the  undergraduate 
work  in  a  way  which  must  tend  in  this  direction.  We  agree  with  the 
view  expressed  in  the  Report  of  the  Professorial  Board  of  University 


284  TEACHING  AND  RESEARCH 

College  that  'any  hard  and  fast  line  between  undergraduate  and  post- 
graduate work  must  be  artificial,  must  be  to  the  disadvantage  of  the 
undergraduate,  and  must  tend  to  diminish  the  supply  of  students  who 
undertake  post-graduate  and  research  work.'  Even  in  those  cases  where 
it  is  necessary  to  provide  for  research  departments  which,  because  of 
their  specialised  work,  are  unsuited  for  the  admission  of  undergraduates, 
they  will  be  stronger  and  more  effective  if  they  are  in  close  proximity 
to  departments  where  undergraduate  work  is  done. 

"Teaching  will,  of  course,  predominate  in  the  earlier  work,  and  research 
will  predominate  in  the  advanced  work ;  but  it  is  in  the  best  interests  of  the 
University  that  the  most  distinguished  of  its  professors  should  take  part 
in  the  teaching  of  the  undergraduates  from  the  beginning  of  their  univer- 
sity career.  It  is  only  by  coming  into  contact  with  the  junior  students  that 
a  teacher  can  direct  their  minds  to  his  own  conception  of  his  subject, 
and  train  them  in  his  own  methods,  and  hence  obtain  the  double  advan- 
tage of  selecting  the  best  men  for  research,  and  getting  the  best  work 
out  of  them.  Again,  it  is  the  personal  influence  of  the  man  doing 
original  work  in  this  subject  which  inspires  belief  in  it,  awakens  enthu- 
siasm, gains  disciples.  His  personality  is  the  selective  power  by  which 
those  who  are  fittest  for  his  special  work  are  voluntarily  enlisted  in  its 
service,  and  his  individual  influence  is  reproduced  and  extended  by  the 
spirit  which  actuates  his  staff.  Neither  is  it  the  few  alone  who  gain; 
all  honest  students  gain  inestimably  from  association  with  teachers  who 
show  them  something  of  the  working  of  the  thought  of  independent  and 
original  minds.  'Anyone,'  says  Helmholtz,  'who  has  once  come  into  contact 
with  one  or  more  men  of  the  first  rank  must  have  had  his  whole  mental 
standard  altered  for  the  rest  of  his  life.'  Lectures  have  not  lost  their  use, 
and  books  can  never  fully  take  the  place  of  the  living  spoken  word. 
Still  less  can  they  take  the  place  of  the  more  intimate  teaching  in  labora- 
tory and  seminar,  which  ought  not  to  be  beyond  the  range  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  a  university  education,  and  in  which  the  student  learns,  not 
only  conclusions  and  the  reasons  supporting  them,  all  of  which  he  might 
get  from  books,  but  the  actual  process  of  developing  thought,  the  working 
of  a  highly  trained  and  original  mind. 

"If  it  is  thus  to  be  desired  that  the  highest  university  teachers  should 
take  their  part  in  undergraduate  work,  and  that  their  spirit  should 
dominate  it  all,  it  follows  for  the  same  reasons  that  they  should  not  be 
deprived  of  the  best  of  their  students  when  they  reach  the  stage  of  post- 
graduate work.  This  work  should  not  be  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 


TEACHING  AND  RESEARCH  285 

work  of  the  University,  and  conducted  by  different  teachers  in  separate 
institutions.  As  far  as  the  teacher  is  concerned  it  is  necessry  that  he 
should  have  post-graduate  students  under  him.  He  must  be  doing  original 
work  himself,  and  he  often  obtains  material  assistance  from  the  co- 
operation of  advanced  students.  Their  very  difficulties  are  full  of  sugges- 
tion, and  their  faith  and  enthusiasm  are  a  perennial  sourcexof  refreshment 
and  strength.  He  escapes  the  flagging  spirit  and  the  moods  of  lethargy 
which  are  apt  to  overtake  the  solitary  worker.  There  can  be  no  question 
of  a  higher  class  of  teachers  than  the  professors  of  the  University,  or  the 
whole  position  of  the  University  will  be  degraded.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  university  teacher  of  the  highest  rank  will  naturally  desire  to  have 
as  his  post-graduate  students  those  students  whom  he  has  already 
begun  to  train  in  his  own  methods,  though  his  laboratory  or  seminar  will, 
of  course,  be  open  to  students  who  come  from  other  universities,  and  to 
some  perhaps  who  come  from  no  universities  at  all,  as  well  as  to  some 
who  come  from  other  teachers  of  the  University  of  London.  There  must 
be  a  great  deal  of  give  and  take,  and  students  may  often  gain  by  studying 
under  more  than  one  teacher  of  the  same  subject;  but  that  is  an  entirely 
different  thing  from  separating  the  higher  work  from  the  lower.  We 
do  not  think  it  would  be  possible  to  get  the  best  men  for  University 
Professorships  if  they  were  in  any  way  restricted  from  doing  the  highest 
work,  or  prevented  from  spreading  their  net  wide  to  catch  the  best  stu- 
dents. 

"It  is  also  a  great  disadvantage  to  the  undergraduate  students  of  the 
University  that  post-graduate  students  should  be  removed  to  separate 
institutions.  They  ought  to  be  in  constant  contact  with  those  who 
are  doing  more  advanced  work  then  themselves,  and  who  are  not  too  far 
beyond  them,  but  stimulate  and  encourage  them  by  the  familiar  presence 
of  an  attainable  ideal. 

"Then,  again,  there  is  the  influence  of  the  University  as  a  whole  upon 
all  departments  of  work  within  it.  The  advance  of  knowledge  is  not  along 
single  lines  of  special  research  alone.  The  sciences  have  all  been  developed 
out  of  the  ordinary  knowledge  of  common  experience  by  the  gradual 
substitution  of  completeness  and  accuracy  for  vagueness.  Research  is 
often  spoken  of  as  if  all  of  it  was  the  highest  kind  of  work,  and  it  is 
often  assumed  that  a  student's  education  has  reached  its  goal  when  he 
is  said  to  be  doing  original  research,  and  that  if  he  attains  to  this  it  does 
not  matter  what  his  previous  training  has  been.  But,  in  fact,  there  are 
all  degrees  of  value  in  research,  and  much  that  is  diginfied  by  the  name, 
however  laborious  and  praiseworthy  it  may  be,  is  directed  to  narrow 


286  TEACHING  AND  RESEARCH 

issues  and  problems  of  quite  secondary  importanoe  because  the  student 
lacks  a  broad  and  liberal  education  and  a  wider  point  of  view.  Even 
men  of  great  eminence  in  their  own  department  of  knowledge  have  been 
known  to  apply  the  conceptions  which  are  valid  within  the  range  of  their 
particular  science  to  problems  which  can  never  be  solved  by  means  of 
them.  All  the  sciences  are  fragmentary  when  viewed  in  relation  to  the 
whole  range  of  experience.  They  pass  over  into  each  other ;  they  require 
to  be  supplemented,  corrected,  extended,  even  their  most  fundamental  pre- 
suppositions may  have  to  be  reconsidered  in  the  light  of  discoveries  in  other 
fields  of  investigation,  and  as  the  result  of  the  re-thinking  and  re-conceiv- 
ing of  existing  knowledge.  It  is  impossible  for  any  but  the  greatest  minds 
to  gain  mastery  over  more  than  a  small  part  of  human  knowledge;  but  in 
addition  to  the  mastery  of  a  part  it  is  possible  to  acquire  a  general  con- 
ception of  the  whole,  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  ideas  which 
guide  the  work  of  the  other  men,  an  almost  instinctive  sense  of  the  bearing 
of  other  branches  of  knowledge  on  one's  own  special  work,  and  a  just 
appreciation  of  its  possibilities  and  limitations.  All  these  ends  are  best 
achieved  by  a  University  which  takes  the  whole  realm  of  human  thought 
and  knowledge  as  its  own,  associates  its  teachers  and  students  together 
as  closely  as  the  conditions  of  their  work  will  allow,  and  so  forms  a 
community  with  one  spirit  and  one  aim,  which  in  course  of  time  will 
develop  an  individual  character  and  create  traditions  that  will  affect  the 
minds  of  all  who  come  within  its  influence.  .  .  . 

"In  a  great  city  like  London,  we  believe  there  is  room,  as  there  is 
in  Berlin  and  Leipzig,  for  important  independent  research  institutes 
which  may  incidentally  offer  advanced  students  of  the  London  and  other 
Universities  opportunities  for  making  investigations  of  a  special  kind; 
but  institutes  of  this  type,  however  necessary  in  themselves,  do  not, 
and  in  our  view  should  not,  form  a  part  of  the  university  organization. 
.  .  .  It  is  obvious  that  the  University  can  exercise  no  influence  over  the 
conduct  of  a  purely  research  centre  such  as  the  Lister  Institute,  or  over 
a  special  professional  school  like  that  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society, 
both  independent  in  every  real  sense  of  the  University,  and  with  purposes 
of  their  own  which  are  not  university  purposes.  We  trust  that  students 
or  graduates  of  the  University  may  be  found  within  their  walls,  but 
they  will  reap  no  advantage  from  a  formal  connexion  of  the  institutions 
with  the  University.  We  believe  that  what  the  University  requires  from 
institutions  such  as  those  named,  is  the  same  kind  of  convenience  of  access 
and  general  co-operation  in  the  interests  of  learning  that  it  looks  for 


UNIVERSITY  PRESS  287 

from  the  national  museums,  or  the  collections  of  learned  societies.  Formal 
bonds  of  connexion  would  do  nothing  to  assist  the  teachers  and  students  of 
the  University  in  making  the  full  use  they  will  and  ought  to  make  of  the 
unrivalled  opportunities  for  special  study  these  institutions  afford. 

"On  the  other  hand,  we  are  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  provision 
should  be  made  by  the  University  itself  for  the  publication  of  the  investi- 
gations which  are  carried  out  under  its  auspices  by  its  teachers  and  its 
senior  students.  The  benefit  which  a  university  can  confer  on  the  world 
of  learning  depends  largely  upon  the  influence  that  it  has  upon  other 
universities  and  learned  bodies.  Shorter  scientific  contributions  are  per- 
haps best  made  known  by  publication  in  the  recognised  periodicals  devoted 
to  the  subjects  to  which  they  relate,  but  the  publication  of  longer  original 
works  cannot  be  made  upon  a  commercial  basis,  and  unless  a  university 
can  assist  its  investigators  by  bringing  their  labors  to  the  notice  of  other 
workers  in  the  same  field,  not  only  will  its  own  teachers  and  students  be 
discouraged,  but  the  advance  of  knowledge,  which  it  is  one  of  the  chief 
purposes  of  a  university  to  achieve,  will  be  delayed  because  other  workers 
will  be  ignorant  of  what  has  already  been  done  or  attempted.  The 
establishment  of  a  University  Press  under  the  full  control  of  the  Univer- 
sity itself  is  therefore,  in  our  opinion,  an  essential  function  of  the  Univer- 
sity. .  .  . 

"Technology 

"There  is  nothing  in  the  functions  of  a  university  as  we  have  described 
them  which  ought  to  exclude  technological  instruction ;  but  it  must  not 
be  of  a  narrow  utilitarian  kind.  If  only  those  technoligical  problems  were 
studied  which  appeared  likely  to  involve  an  immediate  financial  or  material 
advantage,  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  inquiry,  however  recondite, 
was  made  would  destroy  the  university  spirit,  and  would  not  in  fact  be 
likely  to  open  up  the  path  to  their  solution.  The  difficulties  that  present 
themselves  to  manufacturers  or  merchants  seldom  afford  an  indication 
of  the  true  nature  of  the  problems  to  be  solved.  They  are  generally 
secondary  in  their  nature,  and  a  direct  attack  on  them  is  likely  to  be  as 
empirical  as  the  symptomatic  treatment  of  disease.  It  is  the  recognition 
of  this  truth  which  has  led  to  the  paradoxical  assertion  that  the  value 
of  any  study  varies  inversely  with  its  usefulness;  but  in  fact  the  value 
of  a  particular  study  arises  not  out  of  the  matter  which  is  treated,  but  out 
of  the  manner  in  which  it  is  handled.  Even  from  the  point  of  view  of 
technology  we  think  Sir  Water  Raleigh  is  right  when  he  says  in  his  Ad- 
dress on  the  Meaning  of  a  University:  'The  standard  of  utility  is  a  false 


288  TECHNOLOGY 

and  mischievous  standard,  invented  by  short-sighted  greed,  and  certain,  if 
it  is  accepted,  to  paralyse  and  kill  the  University  that  accepts  it.  It 
cultivates  the  branches  for  profit,  and  neglects  the  root.  You  cannot 
apply  the  test  of  utility  to  knowledge  that  is  living  and  growing.  The 
use  of  knowledge  is  often  the  application  to  practical  ends  of  knowledge 
that  has  ceased  to  grow.  It  is  the  timber,  not  the  growing  tree,  which 
serves  for  ships.  Some  of  the  conclusions  of  scientific  study  can  be 
utilised,  but  who  shall  say  which  of  them?  How  can  we  be  free  to  ask 
questions  of  the  world,  if  we  are  told  that  we  must  ask  no  question  the 
answer  of  which  is  not  certain  to  be  immediately  profitable  to  us?  We 
ask  the  question  because  we  do  not  know  the  answer.  The  answer,  if  we 
are  so  fortunate  as  to  find  it,  may  be  disconcerting  and  strange.  Then 
we  must  ask  more  questions.'  This  view  of  the  attitude  which  a  univer- 
sity should  assume  towards  utility  does  not  prevent  it  from  being 
useful  to  the  industries,  indeed  it  will  be  more  useful  to  them  if  this 
is  its  spirit  than  if  it  merely  thinks  of  those  strictly  trade  purposes 
which  it  is  the  necessary  and  useful  end  of  polytechnics  and  technical 
institutes  to  promote.  .  .  . 

"Both  the  history  of  educational  organization  and  a  right  view  of  the 
methods  of  university  work  appear  to  us  to  justify  the  inclusion  of  pro- 
fessionel  and  technological  studies  within  the  University;  and  this  being 
so,  it  is  neither  possible  nor  desirable  to  withhold  the  advantage  of  the 
highly  specialized  work  being  done  in  the  University  laboratories  and 
class-rooms  from  those  already  engaged  in  a  profession  or  calling,  who 
need  to  supplement  their  knowledge  in  particular  directions.  Although 
it  may  be  true  that  the  first  and  most  urgent  call  upon  the  University 
is  that  made  by  its  regular  students,  it  could  not  hope  to  retain  the 
sympathy  and  support  of  the  community  to  which  it  must  look  for  ma- 
terial as  well  as  moral  assistance,  if  it  refused  help  and  guidance  to  men 
and  women  who,  though  the  days  of  regular  study  were  past,  wished 
to  keep  abreast  with  the  demands  made  upon  them  by  their  professions. 
A  university  in  a  great  center  of  population  must  be  prepared  to  provide 
advanced  instruction  of  specialised  kind  for  all  classes  of  the  community 
who  are  willing  to  receive  it.  A  great  deal  of  this  work  must  be  done 
in  the  evening,  and  for  this  purpose  the  great  day  colleges  of  the 
University  should  be  used.  .  .  . 


DEGREES   AND   EXAMINATIONS  289 

"Degrees  and  Examinations 

"The  power  of  granting  degrees  is  one  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  all 
universities,  although  it  is  not  the  real  end  of  their  existence.  The  great 
majority  of  the  students  enter  the  university  only  for  a  few  years,  and 
graduation  is  for  them  the  culmination  of  their  university  career.  In 
earlier  times  the  students  of  a  Faculty  were  apprentices  to  a  profession, 
and  when  they  became  masters  they  entered  the  rank  of  teachers  and  were 
required  to  teach  for  a  time.  This  rarely  happens  now;  the  teachers  are 
a  specially  appointed  class,  and  the  bulk  of  the  students  leave  the  univer- 
sity immediately  after  graduation.  The  university  fulfils  its  end  for  the 
nation  and  the  world  partly  by  the  advancement  of  science  and  learning, 
but  partly  also  by  sending  out  into  many  of  the  different  paths  of  life  a 
constant  stream  of  men  and  women  who  have  been  trained  by  its  teaching 
and  influenced  by  its  life. 

"The  object  of  going  to  a  university  is,  or  ought  to  be,  to  obtain  a 
university  education;  and  the  degree  ought  to  signify  that  this  end  has 
been  attained.  It  is  required  for  practical  purposes  as  the  sign  and  guar- 
antee of  a  university  education.  At  the  present  day  the  pass  degree 
is  the  public  certificate  of  the  university  that  the  student  has  complied 
with  such  conditions  as  may  be  prescribed  with  regard  to  residence,  in- 
struction and  course  of  study,  and  has  satisfied  the  tests  which  the  univer- 
sity imposes  in  order  to  ascertain  that  he  has  profited  to  a  reasonable 
extent  by  the  opportunity  he  has  had.  The  honours  degrees  certify  that  he 
has  acquitted  himself  with  greater  or  less  distinction,  and  the  higher 
degrees  that  he  has  pursued  a  further  course  of  study  and  satisfied  addi- 
tional tests.  Degrees,  however,  are  not  only  certificates,  they  are  also 
distinctions;  and  the  hope  of  academic  distinction  excites  emulation  and 
rivalry  which,  although  not  the  highest  motives,  are  powerful  incentives 
to  sustained  effort  and  self-denying  exertion  not  easily  dispensed  with. 

"It  is  obvious  that  the  tests  imposed  ought  to  be  designed  for  the 
purpose  of  affording  sufficient  evidence  that  the  object  has  been  attained 
which  is  certified  by  the  degree.  Two  things,  then,  must  be  kept  in  view 
in  fixing  what  the  tests  should  be.  First,  they  should  be  fair  tests  affording 
sufficient  evidence  of  what  they  are  intended  to  prove;  and,  secondly, 
they  should  not  interfere  with  or  injuriously  affect,  but  should,  if  possi- 
ble, assist  the  education  which  it  is  the  real  end  of  the  university  to  give. 
In  English  universities  the  main  test  employed  is  that  of  examination. 
We  must  therefore  consider  the  question  how  far  that  test  affords  suffi- 
cient evidence  of  a  university  education  (1)  when  conducted  solely  by 


290  DEGREES   AND   EXAMINATIONS 

;;  ?i  -fj   :;  RMi:i  '•!•".  Tl-.^i-'i 

external  examiners,  and  (2),  when  conducted  largely  by  the  teachers  of  the 
students  examined;  and  how  far  in  each  case  it  is  injurious  to  the  real 
education  of  the  student  or  can  be  made  to  assist  its  ends. 

"On  the  External  side  of  the  University  of  London,  the  only  test  imposed 
is  that  of  examination,  and  the  only  condition  for  securing  the  education 
of  the  student  is  the  lapse  of  time  between  the  examinations,  during 
which  he  may  apply  himself  to  study  on  the  lines  of  prescribed  syllabus, 
with  or  without  instruction.  Such  examinations  are  necessarily  con- 
ducted by  examiners  who,  except  by  accident,  have  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  instruction  of  the  candidates,  and  the  questions  must  be  so 
framed  as  to  be  fair  to  candidates  who  have  been  entirely  dependent 
upon  private  study.  What,  then,  does  the  examination  test?  All  that 
is  provided  is  a  syllabus,  and  all  that  the  examination  can  profess  to 
test  is  a  knowledge,  at  the  time  of  the  examinatioon,  of  the  subjects 
prescribed  by  the  syllabus,  because  the  candidate  may  get  his  knowledge 
in  any  way  he  likes.  He  may  work  hard  and  well,  and  he  may  have  the 
best  instruction,  but  the  test  of  the  examination  affords  no  sufficient 
evidence  of  this.  As  far  as  it  tests  his  knowledge  or  information  alone, 
it  can  obtain  evidence  only  of  memory,  and  not  even  of  lasting  memory, 
because,  in  the  case  of  some  subjects  at  any  rate,  cramming  is  the  most 
successful  way  of  preparing  for  the  test,  and  it  is  notorious  that  a  good 
coach  can  enable  a  candidate  even  to  dispense  with  cramming  more  than 
fragments  of  a  subject  prescribed.  .  .  .  We  do  not  suggest  that  the 
examinations  are  easy  to  pass;  the  large  percentage  of  failures  is  sufficient 
evidence  that  they  are  not.  But  the  large  number  of  failures  also  proves 
that  a  wide  syllabus  of  prescribed  subjects,  with  an  External  examination 
as  the  test  for  the  information  acquired,  inevitably  tends  to  uneducational 
methods  of  work,  and,  that  far  too  many  of  the  candidates  are  only 
'having  a  shot  at  it,'  because  there  is  a  fair  chance  of  scraping  through 
a  rather  indiscriminating  test  with  a  minimum  amount  of  knowledge 
and  a  turn  of  good  luck.  It  is  not  an  answer  to  say,  as  one  witness  said, 
that  the  intellect  is  strengthened  by  overcoming  difficulties;  that  if  a 
man  has  the  resolution  and  strength  of  purpose  to  attain  a  standard 
of  knowledge  by  himself,  equal  to  that  attained  by  another  man  with 
assistance,  the  former  is  the  stronger  man;  that  if  he  has  mastered 
great  books  by  the  greatest  men  he  will  have  come  into  communication 
with  bigger  minds  than  any  who  are  likely  to  be  his  teachers,  and  that  his 
teachers  can  do  him  good  only  by  assisting  him  more  readily  to  come 
into  communication  with  those  bigger  minds.  Even  then  we  think  the 


DEGREES   AND   EXAMINATIONS  291 

intellectual  cultivation  is  likely  to  be  one-sided  and  defective;  but  there 
is  a  fallacy  in  the  assumption  that  self-education  is  achieved  by  any  but 
the  very  exceptional  man,  or  is  induced  by  the  examination.  No  doubt 
the  degree  is  an  incentive  to  work,  and  there  are  very  few  who  can 
dispense  with  some  incentive,  but  the  External  examination  does  not 
test  the  quality  of  the  work.  It  can  be  more  effectively  and  more  easily 
prepared  for  by  means  that  are  not  really  educational.  It  is  in  spite  of, 
and  not  by  means  of,  the  so-called  principle  of  guidance  by  test,  if  the 
great  majority  of  the  candidates  do  not  belong  to  the  class  which  Newman 
describes  as  'those  earnest  but  ill-used  persons,  who  are  forced  to  load 
their  minds  with  a  score  of  subjects  against  an  examination,  who  have  too 
much  on  their  hands  to  indulge  themselves  in  thinking  or  investigation, 
who  devour  premiss  and  conclusion  together  with  indiscriminate  greedi- 
ness, who  hold  whole  sciences  on  faith,  and  commit  demonstrations  to 
memory,  and  who  too  often,  as  might  be  expected,  when  their  period 
of  education  is  passed,  throw  up  all  they  have  learned  in  disgust,  having 
gained  nothing  really  by  their  anxious  labours,  except  perhaps  the  habit 
of  application.' 

"Even  in  the  case  of  a  true  university  where  the  students  have  had  the 
opportunity  of  obtaining  a  university  education,  a  purely  external  examina- 
tion conducted  by  examiners  who  have  nothing  to  go  upon  but  the  syllabus 
prescribed  for  the  course  of  instruction,  can  afford  evidence  of  nothing 
more  than  we  have  already  described.  But  the  failure  will  be  greater; 
because  the  object  is  not  to  test  the  knowledge  of  candidates  at  the  time 
of  the  examination,  but  whether  students  have  profited  by  the  opportunity 
they  have  had  of  obtaining  a  university  education.  Hardly  anyone  now 
defends  a  purely  external  examination  as  a  proper  test  of  university 
teaching.  The  University  of  New  Zealand,  one  of  the  last  of  the  universi- 
ties to  retain  this  form  of  examination,  adopted  under  the  influence  of  the 
old  University  of  London,  is  at  present  agitating  for  reform.  .  .  . 

"We  are  convinced  that  both  a  detailed  syllabus  and  an  external  exami- 
nation are  inconsistent  with  the  true  interests  of  university  education, 
injurious  to  the  student,  degrading  to  the  teachers,  and  ineffective  for 
the  attainment  of  the  ends  they  are  supposed  to  promote.  The  insistence 
on  a  system  of  external  examinations  is  always  based  upon  want  of  faith 
in  the  teachers.  Even  the  so-called  Internal  examinations  of  the  University 
of  London  are  practically  external,  because  of  the  large  number  of  insti- 
tutions involved,  and  the  demands  of  the  common  syllabus;  and  the 
syllabus  is  a  device  to  maintain  a  standard  among  institutions  which 


292  DEGREES  AND  EXAMINATIONS 

are  not  all  of  university  rank.  The  effect  upon  the  students  and  the 
teachers  is  disastrous.  The  students  have  the  ordeal  of  the  examination 
hanging  over  them  and  must  prepare  themselves  for  it  or  fail  to  get  the 
degree.  Thus  the  degree  comes  first  and  the  education  a  bad  second.  They 
cannot  help  thinking  of  what  will  pay:  they  lose  theoretic  interest  in  the 
subjects  of  study,  and  with  it  the  freedom,  the  thought,  the  reflection,  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  which  are  the  atmosphere  of  university  work.  They 
cannot  pursue  knowledge  both  for  its  own  sake  and  also  for  the  sake 
of  passing  the  test  of  an  examination.  And  the  teachers'  powers  are  re- 
stricted by  the  syllabus;  their  freedom  in  dealing  with  their  subject  in 
their  own  way  is  limited,  and  they  must  either  direct  their  teaching 
to  preparation  for  an  examination  which  is  for  each  of  them  practically 
external,  or  else  lose  the  interest  and  attention  of  their  students.  Indeed, 
the  best  teachers  are  apt  to  lose  their  students'  attention  either  way,  for 
if  they  teach  unreservedly  by  the  syllabus  their  own  interest  must  flag, 
consequently  that  of  their  hearers  also.  We  shall  make  recommendations 
which  will  dispense  with  the  necessity  of  the  syllabus,  by  ensuring  the 
appointment  of  teachers  who  can  be  trusted  with  the  charge  of  university 
education.  Teachers  who  can  be  trusted  with  this  far  more  important 
and  responsible  duty  can  also  be  trusted  with  the  conduct  of  examinations, 
in  so  far  as  they  are  accepted  as  proper  and  necessary  tests  for  the 
degrees  of  the  University.  But  examinations,  even  when  conducted  by 
the  teachers  of  the  University,  and  based  upon  the  instruction  given  by 
them,  ought  not  to  be  the  only  tests  for  the  degree.  It  is  not  right  that 
the  work  of  years  should  be  juged  by  the  answers  given  to  examination 
papers  in  a  few  hours.  .  .  .  Due  weight  should  be  given  to  the 
whole  record  of  the  students'  work  in  the  University.  If  the  academic 
freedom  of  the  professors  and  the  students  is  to  be  maintained — if  scope 
for  individual  initiative  is  to  be  allowed  to  the  professors,  and  the  students 
are  to  profit  to  the  full  by  their  instruction — it  is  absolutely  necessary 
that,  subject  to  proper  safeguards,  the  degrees  of  the  University  should 
practically  be  the  certificates  given  by  the  professors  themselves,  and  that 
the  students  should  have  entire  confidence  that  they  may  trust  their 
academic  fate  to  honest  work  under  their  instruction  and  direction. 

"We  have  described  in  brief  the  things  which,  in  our  opinion,  a  univer- 
sity must  do — the  things  which  it  is  essential  should  be  done  if  there 
is  to  be  a  university  at  all,  and  also  those  things  which  the  University 
of  London  should  do,  if  it  is  to  serve  adequately  the  needs  of  the  great 


DEGREES   AND   EXAMINATIONS  293 

population  at  its  doors.  .  .  .  For  the  moment  .  .  .  there  is  con- 
fusion in  the  public  mind  between  a  university  education  and  a  university 
degree.  People  believe  that  everyone  who  has  the  latter  has  in  some 
way  or  other  also  had  the  former,  and  that  the  examinations  that  have 
been  passed  are  a  proof  of  it.  ...  When  an  understanding  has  once 
been  reached  of  what  university  teaching  really  is,  and  of  what  it  can 
do  for  a  man,  we  believe  students,  no  matter  how  poor  they  may  be, 
will  refuse  to  be  satisfied  with  anything  less  good  than  the  best." 

The  Commission's  discussion  of  the  "Working  of  the  Present 
Organization  of  the  University,"  manifests  the  same  clear  insights 
and  firm  grasp  of  essential  principles.  They  see  plainly,  for 
instance,  why  Boards  of  Studies  and  the  common  syllabus  and  ex- 
ternal examinations,  whereby  the  various  colleges  have  been  linked 
together,  have  necessarily  been  "a  bar  to  all  real  prosrress  in  the 
best  institutions."  "The  external  bond  of  a  common  examination, 
because  it  is  common  to  all,  must  always  be  to  some  extent  exter- 
nal to  each  and  can  never  demand  much  more  than  the  weakest 
institution  can  give." 

"The  evidence  shows  that  the  Academic  and  the  External  Councils  are 
dominated  by  incompatible  ideals.  The  one  side  believes  that  training  in 
a  university  under  university  teachers  is  an  essential  and  by  far  the  most 
important  factor  in  a  university  education,  while  the  other  side  believes 
that  examinations  based  upon  a  syllabus  afford  'a  guidance  by  test,'  which 
is  an  adequate  means  of  ascertaining  that  a  candidate  has  attined  a  stand- 
ard of  knowledge  entitling  him  to  a  university  degree.  We  have  been 
told  that  these  different  points  of  view  are  constantly  opposed  to  each 
other  in  the  Senate;  that  many  matters  thus  become  the  subject  of  con- 
troversy which  ought  not  to  be  so;  that  questions  of  grave  importance 
have  been  decided  by  narrow  majorities,  and  that  policies  which  have  been 
adopted  and  acted  upon  have  been  suddenly  reversed.  .  .  . 

"The  curricula  are  prepared  without  any  special  regard  to  the  particu- 
lar lines  along  which  individual  Schools  are  working,  and  are  in  all  but 
form  detailed  syllabuses  for  examination.  We  have  had  evidence  from  a 
number  of  the  professors  that  the  common  syllabus  of  instruction  pre- 
scribed by  the  University  hampers  the  best  teaching.  ...  It  appears, 
therefore,  that  this  power  over  the  curricula,  by  which  the  University 


294  DEGREES    AND   EXAMINATIONS 

can  exercise  a  real  influence  on  the  Schools,  though  possibly  beneficial 
hitherto  in  maintaining  an  average  standard,  especially  for  the  weaker 
institutions,  has  been  far  from  beneficial  in  its  effect  upon  more  ad- 
vanced work  done  in  the  stronger  Schools.  A  far  more  important  factor 
in  maintaining  a  high  standard  of  teaching  is  the  character  of  the 
teachers  themselves;  but,  with  a  few  unimportant  exceptions,  the  Univer- 
sity has  no  control  over  their  appointment.  .  . 

"We  are  convinced  that  it  is  not  possible  to  organize  a  great  university 
merely  by  giving  a  number  of  independent  institutions  with  different  aims 
and  different  standards  a  formal  connexion  with  a  central  degree-giving 
body  which  has  practically  no  control  beyond  the  approval  of  syllabuses 
for  degree  courses,  the  recognition  of  individual  teachers,  and  the  conduct 
of  degree  examinations.  We  agree  with  Professor  Hill,  lately  Vice- 
Chancellor  of  the  University,  that  'the  power  to  control  teaching  is  of 
more  importance  than  the  power  to  test  it  by  granting  degrees.'  .  .  . 

"University  students  in  the  Polytechnics,  no  less  than  their  teachers, 
are  working  in  institutions  intended  for  non-university  purposes,  with 
aims  which  have  been  described  by  the  Charity  Commissioners  as  'the 
promotion  of  the  industrial  skill,  general  knowledge,  health  and  well-being 
of  young  men  and  women  belonging  to  the  poorer  classes',  and  which  in 
the  main,  and  for  the  majority  of  their  students,  are  not  those  of  a 
university.  In  these  circumstances  it  is  inevitable  that  the  degree  exami- 
nation rather  than  the  course  of  instruction  should  appear  the  important 
matter,  an  attitude  which  is  encouraged  by  the  large  proportion  of  the 
students  who  take  the  External  examinations  and  attend  only  so  much 
of  the  instruction  as  they  think  necessary.  The  passing  of  a  university 
examination  is  no  evidence  that  a  student  has  received  a  university  train- 
ing, yet  the  training  is  what  the  young  men  and  women  need  who  are 
destined  to  do  work  for  which  university  graduates  are  required.  The 
teacher  who  gives  a  part,  or  even  the  whole,  of  his  time  and  energies 
merely  to  holding  classes  in  preparation  for  university  examinations  is 
not  on  that  account  a  university  teacher;  for  the  university  teacher  is 
not  only  concerned  with  imparting  knowledge,  but  also  with  training 
the  minds  of  his  students,  and  inducing  a  critical  and  inquiring  temper. 
The  student  may  acquire  much  knowledge  from  his  teacher;  but  if  that 
is  all  he  acquires  he  will  not  have  had  a  university  training,  and  if  that 
is  all  his  teacher  can  give  he  is  not  a  true  university  teacher.  The 
university  teacher  should  be  chosen  because  his  powers  are  of  the  kind 
to  fit  him  for  university  work;  in  so  far  as  he  is  well  fitted  to  do  that 


POLYTECHNICS  295 

work,  he  is  not  the  kind  of  teacher  that  is  best  suited  for  the  major 
part  of  the  work  to  be  done  in  Polytechnics.  One  machine  cannot  satis- 
factorily produce  simultaneously  two  such  different  articles  as  the  skilled 
craftsman  or  artisan  and  the  trained  university  student.  If  the  Poly- 
technics are  to  do  both  things  they  must  differentiate  their  functions; 
one  department  must  confine  itself  to  doing  university  work,  and  others 
to  teaching  foremen  and  craftsmen.  .  .  . 

"The  Polytechnics  have  suffered  in  all  their  work  from  the  rapidity 
of  their  growth  and  the  success  they  have  achieved.  There  is  grave  danger 
that  the  Polytechnics  may  fail  from  the  absence  of  a  clear  objective,  that 
the  desire  to  add  subject  to  subject  and  class  to  class  may  lead  to  a 
waste  of  public  money  and  to  a  dissipation  of  the  energies  of  the  teachers; 
but  if  this  is  true  of  their  work  as  a  whole  it  is  especially  true  in  regard 
to  university  work.  Some  overlapping  between  different  grades  of  institu- 
tions is  inevitable,  and  perhaps  even  desirable,  in  order  to  furnish  opportu- 
nities for  the  student  who  for  one  reason  or  another  has  been  obliged  to 
depart  from  the  normal  course.  But  when  to  avoid  hardship  in  one  direc- 
tion, institutions  have  been  diverted  from  the  work  for  which  they  were 
originally  founded  and  for  which  they  are  still  needed,  and  when  they  have 
been  induced  to  undertake  university  work  without  due  consideration  of 
the  necessity  for  it3  or  of  their  ability  to  do  it  efficiently,  a  position  has 
been  reached  which  is  not  only  dangerous  to  these  institutions  themselves, 
but  to  university  education  as  a  whole.  Already  an  active  and  successful 
technical  college  has  been  transformed  into  one  of  the  weaker  Schools  of 
the  University,  and  this  example  has  led  no  less  than  four  other  institu- 
tions of  the  polytechnic  type  to  put  forward  claims  for  similar  recognition. 
This  fact  alone  affords  clear  evidence  of  the  need  for  some  readjustment 
of  the  relation  between  Polytechnic  institutions  and  the  University. 
.  .  .  [The  present  relations]  involve  elaborate  and  irksome  regulations 
as  to  the  length  and  scope  of  courses  of  study  for  degrees,  division  of 
interests  and  a  hesitating  policy  among  the  teachers,  and  a  complete 
failure  to  organize  and  weld  into  a  properly  co-ordinated  whole  the 
higher  work  of  teaching  and  research  which  it  is  the  main  purpose  of  a 
university  to  promote. 

"Regulations  prescribe  the  minimum  length,  in  hours,  of  all  approved 
courses,  whether  for  day  or  evening  students,  and  in  order  that  a  student 
may  be  admitted  to  an  Internal  examination  he  must  attend  four-fifths 
of  the  minimum  number  of  hours  allotted  to  the  course  in  each  subject  of 
the  curriculum.  Elaborate  rules  define  the  number  of  hours'  supervision 
by  a  'recognized'  teacher  required  at  every  course  given  in  a  workshop  or  a 


296  CONFLICTING  AIMS 

laboratory.  The  scope  and  standard  of  each  course  are  defined  by  de- 
tailed syllabuses  which  determine  not  only  the  instruction  to  be  given, 
but  the  examinations  to  be  held;  and  in  consequence  the  initiative  of  the 
teacher  and  his  power  to  break  new  ground  are  diminished.  So  far-reaching 
is  the  cumulative  effect  of  these  regulations  and  syllabuses  that,  as  we 
have  been  informed  by  many  witnesses,  the  teachers  are  now  hampered 
in  the  treatment  of  their  subjects  almost  as  much  as  they  used  to  be 
before  the  reconstitution  of  the  University,  when  all  their  students  were 
preparing  for  an  external  examination;  and  that  the  examinations  them- 
selves are  becoming  more  and  more  external  in  character  owing  to  the 
necessity  of  providing  tests  suitable  to  a  large  number  of  institutions  of 
different  standards  and  aims.  It  has  become  impossible  to  allow  the 
degree  of  liberty  and  personal  initiative  which  is  desirable  in  the  case  of 
university  teachers  of  the  highest  rank,  and  which  can  safely  be  per- 
mitted even  to  junior  teachers  working  under  the  supervision  of  a  dis- 
tinguished head  of  a  department.  Not  only  are  the  best  teachers  hampered, 
but  even  good  students  in  the  best  Schools  of  the  University  are  induced 
by  irksome  regulation  of  their  course  of  study,  which  they  do  not  find 
necessary  or  beneficial,  to  abandon  the  Internal  side  and  take  the  External 
degree.  .  .  . 

"It  has  been  pointed  out  to  us  that  in  existing  conditions  the  syllabus 
may  be  a  means  of  ensuring  that  some  important  aspect  of  a  particular 
subject  not  hitherto  included  in  the  curriculum  shall  receive  due  attention; 
but  this  is,  after  all,  only  another  way  of  saying  that  when  a  university 
is  made  up  of  institutions  of  different  standards  and  aims  the  syllabus 
is  a  necessary  means  of  maintaining  a  reasonable  level  of  efficiency. 
.  .  .  [But]  it  also  tends  to  dishearten  and  keep  from  the  meetings 
those  teachers  who,  because  they  are  progressive  and  original,  should 
have  a  commanding  influence.  The  body  of  university  teachers  is  thus 
divided  against  itself.  .  .  . 

"There  are  other  defects  in  the  present  organization  of  the  University 
which  it  will  be  convenient  to  consider  together,  for,  although  they  are  not 
all  traceable  to  one  or  other  of  the  two  main  grounds  we  have  been 
considering,  they  are  all  connected  with  the  machinery  of  government. 

"Mr.  Pember  Reeves,  the  Director  of  the  London  School  of  Economics, 
who  has  had  wide  experience  of  administrative  business  both  in  this 
country  and  New  Zealand,  said  in  evidence:  'What  is  so  troublesome, 
of  course,  is  that  the  Boards  of  Studies  come  over  the  heads  of  the 


TEEBITOEY  297 

Faculties,  over  the  heads  of  almost  everybody,  in  fact,  right  to  the 
Senate,  and  a  great  deal  of  time  of  the  Senate  is  passed  in  wrangling 
and  worrying  about  something  or  other  which  has  been  done  by  a  Board 
of  Studies.'  .  .  . 

"The  large  size  of  some  of  the  Faculties,  appears  to  us  to  be  a  far 
less  evil  than  that  which  arises  from  the  unequal  standing  of  their  mem- 
bers. This  inequality  is  directly  due  to  the  second  of  the  main  causes  of 
the  defects  in  the  organization — the  combination  in  the  University  of  a 
large  number  of  institutions  differently  related  to  it  and  of  different  edu- 
cational standards  and  aims;  but  it  is  also  in  part  due  to  the  action  of 
the  Statutory  Commission  of  1898,  and,  after  them,  of  the  Senate  of  the 
University  in  the  exercise  of  their  discretionary  powers  of  recognizing 
teachers,  and  admitting  them  as  members  of  the  Faculties.  .  .  . 

"Our  attention  has  been  specially  directed  by  Lord  Reay  to  the  views 
of  the  Gresham  Commission.  He  referred  to  the  following  passage  in 
paragraph  22  of  their  report:  'Having  regard,  however,  to  the  necessity 
so  frequently  adverted  to  by  the  witnesses  of  a  more  systematic  grouping 
and  co-ordination  of  educational  means,  we  should  deprecate  any  action 
which  would  tend  to  an  undue  multiplication  of  centres  of  instruction. 
The  evidence  points  strongly  to  the  conclusion  that  for  some  time  to 
come  the  most  effectual  method  of  promoting  higher  education  in  London 
will  be  by  completing  and  supplementing  the  resources  of  existing  institu- 
tions, and  even  in  some  cases  by  limiting  to  one  or  more  centres  teaching 
which  is  now  given  with  inadequate  resources  and  to  inadequate  numbers 
in  various  institutions.' 

"Lord  Reay  went  on  to  say:  'That  is  still  my  opinion  with  regard 
to  the  present  situation;  that  as  the  financial  means  which  are  available 
are  so  limited,  whatever  means  there  are  should  be  used  rather  to  level 
up  existing  institutions,  both  with  regard  to  their  equipment,  their  plant, 
and  the  salaries  of  their  professors,  than  to  start  new  institutions.'  .  .  . 

"The  Area,  of  the  University 

"We  have  given  much  consideration  to  the  question  of  the  proper  area 
of  the  University.  Under  its  present  constitution  the  University  has  two 
areas.  The  smaller  of  the  two  is  confined  to  the  Administrative  County 
of  London,  and  it  is  only  within  this  area  that  the  University  can  under 
the  statutes  admit  public  educational  institutions  as  Schools.  .  .  - 
The  larger  area  is  defined  by  an  imaginary  line  drawn  at  a  radius  of  30 
miles  from  the  central  buildings  of  the  University,  and  within  this  area 


298  CONSTRUCTIVE   IDEALS 

the  Senate  has  the  power  of  recognising  teachers  in  public  educational 
institutions,  and  so  qualifying  them  for  appointment  to  the  Faculties  and 
Boards  of  Studies,  and  their  matriculated  students  for  registration  as 
Internal  students  of  the  University.  ...  If  London  is  to  have  a  real 
university,  its  area  must  be  a  relatively  limited  one,  and  we  think  that 
the  Administrative  County  is  certainly  the  largest  which  will  allow  of 
the  effective  organisation  we  desire.  ["The  strengthening  of  the  Faculties 
and  the  close  co-operation  of  their  members."]  There  is  a  real  limit  to 
the  number  of  students  for  which  a  university  can  provide  the  highest 
kind  of  education.  It  is  thought  by  many  that  the  University  of  Berlin 
with  nearly  9,000  matriculated  students  is  already  too  large,  and  we  doubt 
whether  the  University  of  London  would  ever  be  able  to  provide  for  a 
much  larger  number  than  this  an  education  comparable  to  that  of  Berlin. 
When  this  point  has  been  reached  the  need  will  have  arisen  for  another 
university,  and  if  the  University  of  London  can  prepare  the  way  for  a 
new  university  in  the  south-east  of  England  by  encouraging  the  develop- 
ment of  the  right  lines  of  educational  institutions  beyond  its  own  im- 
mediate area,  it  will  have  performed  a  greater  service  to  education  and 
to  the  State  than  by  attempting  a  gigantic  organisation  which  would 
be  likely  to  end  in  the  arid  formalism  of  the  Napoleonic  Universitg  de 
France." 

The  fundamental  principles  discerned  and  affirmed  by  the  Com- 
mission on  University  Education  in  London  are  of  universal  appli- 
cation. Their  proper  recognition  would  save  the  rulers  and  admin- 
istrators of  any  university  from  injurious — perhaps  fatal — errors. 
Haldane  of  Cloan  has  rendered  notable  service  to  his  nation  in 
various  capacities;  but  not  in  the  past,  as  Principal  Secretary  of 
State  for  War,  has  he  exceeded,  nor  is  it  probable  that  he  will  sur- 
pass in  the  future,  as  Lord  High  Chancellor,  the  achievement  rep- 
resented by  this  great  report  on  university  education,  elaborated 
by  him  and  his  distinguished  colleagues  of  the  Commission. 

The  following  statement  by  President  Alderman  presents  cer- 
tain ideals  that  should  be  clearly  conceived  and  steadfastly  upheld 
by  all  university  faculties.  Vague  declamation  about  such  themes 
is  common  enough,  but  it  represents  too  often  only  the  homage  that 


CONSTRUCTIVE    IDEALS  299 

ignorance  or  hypocrisy  pays  to  philosophy  and  virtue.  The  ideals 
must  be  vital,  conforming  forces,  else  they  will  be  but  will-o'-the- 
wisps  leading  to  pernicious  developments,  through  quagmires  of 
fraud  and  blundering. 

"The  last  quarter  of  the  century  has  witnessed  the  organization  of  the 
American  university,  and  the  partial  realization  of  its  final  form.  .  .  . 
This  new  educational  form  will  comprise: 

"(1)  The  College  of  Liberal  Arts — the  academic  heart — which  has 
assimilated  scientific  studies  and  thereby  put  itself  in  touch  with  the 
meaning  of  the  age.  Its  function  will  be  to  receive  immature  youth 
in  an  atmosphere  of  broad  and  varied  associations,  in  contact  with  wise 
and  noble  lives,  and  to  offer  them  such  experience  in  evoking  manhood 
and  capacity,  and  such  knowledge  of  man,  nature  and  spirit,  that  they 
shall  gain  power  to  enter  into  life  with  character,  enthusiasm,  and  con- 
viction. The  college  is  a  social  institution,  enlightening  and  guiding 
youth,  that  it  may  make  men  of  them. 

"(2)  The  Graduate  School — the  academic  brain — charged  with  the 
function  of  training  mature  and  liberally  educated  men  to  investigation 
and  scientific  productiveness.  Here  shall  be  gained  that  patience  and 
energy,  that  open-mindedness  and  sure  thinking,  that  intellectual  sin- 
cerity, that  have  belonged  to  all  of  the  path-finders  from  Aristotle  to 
Pasteur,  and  must  belong  to  him  who  would  broaden  the  ways  and  enlarge 
the  boundaries  of  thought.  The  advance  of  civilization  will  rest  on  the 
strength  of  this  school,  and  through  its  work  alone  can  a  university  hope 
to  become  a  school  of  power,  binding  other  colleges  to  it  in  loyalty,  and 
not  only  responsive  to  tradition,  but  to  new  truth  daily  appearing  in 
the  life  of  man.  Here  the  quiet  scholar  may  search  out  the  truth  and 
hold  it  aloft  for  men  to  see. 

"(3)  The  Professional  Schools — the  heart  and  brain  at  work  on 
life — as  varied  in  number  and  scope  as  society  is  complex,  seeking  to 
provide  the  world  with  the  best  skill  needful  for  its  growth,  and  so 
justly  related  to  the  whole,  that  we  shall  escape  the  peril  of  the  illiberal 
and  uneducated  specialist. 

"All  this  shall  be  placed  in  a  setting  of  a  little  world  of  libraries, 
laboratories,  loan  funds,  fellowships,  mechanism,  and  beauty,  and  the 
whole  vitalized  and  spiritualized  by  men  in  such  force  that  their  spirits 
shall  not  break  and  their  hopes  shall  not  die.  We  do  not  need  many  such 
universities  but  we  do  need  them  strong  and  in  the  right  places.  The 


300  CONSTRUCTIVE  IDEALS 

multiplication  of  weakness  by  weakness  yields  weakness  still.  The  South 
needs  them  to  protect  its  real  reconstructive  era  from  the  dangers  of 
empiricism,  industrial  dependence,  and  the  perils  that  beset  character 
in  all  democracies.  .  .  . 

"The  power  necessary  to  transform  the  University  into  a  fortress  and 
dynamo  of  conservation  and  enlightenment  is  being  won  from  forest 
and  factory  and  farm,  and  is  undergoing  consecration  to  these  high 
purposes  in  thousands  of  tender  consciences  and  purposeful  minds.  .  .  . 
Money  alone  cannot  make  such  a  university,  but  vast  power  is  necessary, 
and  though  it  bear  the  image  and  superscription  of  Caesar,  there  is  an 
alchemy  of  consecration  in  our  laboratories  which  can  transmute  money 
into  moral  force.  Mere  individual  genius,  even  of  Plato,  or  Abelard  or 
Arnold  or  Hopkins,  cannot  make  such  a  university,  though  God  pity  it  if 
it  have  not  such  quality  of  soul  somewhere  in  its  life.  Prestige  will  not 
suffice,  for  prestige  may  be  a  gentle  euphemism  for  epitaph,  if  isolated 
from  continuing  power  to  serve  a  widening  field." 

I  have  already  referred*  to  the  commanding  interest  and  value 
of  Paulsen's  great  book,  The  German  Universities,  for  all  whose 
duty  it  is  to  understand  the  proper  nature  and  scope  and  processes 
of  university  work.  Its  exposition  of  freedom  of  teaching  and 
freedom  of  learning  has  been  submitted  to  the  reader.  I  add  in 
this  connection  its  presentment  of  the  ideal  of  scholarship  on  the 
part  of  the  professor  in  the  German  university,  and  the  conse- 
quences of  an  accordant  practice,  not  only  for  university  work  but 
also  for  the  nation  and,  particularly,  for  the  secondary  schools. 
Professor  Thilly  says,  in  the  translator's  preface : 

"Our  country  ha?  learned  much  from  the  German  universities,  and 
it  is  largely  owing  to  this  that  we  occupy  the  position  in  the  scientific 
world  which  we  already  occupy.  It  is  safe  to  say,  however,  that  we  still 
have  a  great  deal  to  learn,  and  that  a  book  like  Professor  Paulsen's  can 
point  the  way  to  new  ideals.  We  have  not  yet  reached  the  development 
of  which  we  are  capable.  For  one  thing  we  have  not  yet  reached  that 
degree  of  inner  freedom  which  the  German  university  enjoys  and  to  which 
Professor  Paulsen  attributes  the  wonderful  advance  which  has  been  made 
in  higher  education  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The  one-man  power,  which 

'Page  266. 


CONSTRUCTIVE   IDEALS  301 

exists  in  many  of  our  institutions,  the  interference  of  governing  boards 
with  purely  academic  matters  which  should  be  left  to  faculties  or  indi- 
vidual teachers,  the  influence  of  politics  and  sectarianism,  the  unhealthful 
pressure  sometimes  exerted  by  the  fear  of  losing  appropriations,  all  these 
are  problems  which  have  not  yet  been  wholly  solved,  but  which  must  and 
will  be  solved  before  the  American  university  will  become  what  it  can 
become.  Of  course,  this  absence  of  inner  freedom  of  action  is  often  due 
to  the  primitive  condition  of  many  of  our  universities  .  .  .  and  will 
disappear  as  these  institutions  more  closely  approach  the  university 
ideal.  .  .  . 

"Another  element  of  strength  in  the  German  university,  one  that  could 
not  develop  without  the  factor  just  mentioned,  and  without  which  the 
university  could  never  have  reached  its  present  status,  is  the  spirit  of 
investigation  among  its  members.  The  German  professor  is,  above  every- 
thing else,  a  scientific  investigator.  This  phase  of  development  also  has 
its  shadow  sides  and  dangers,  as  Professor  Paulsen  shows.  But  it  is  true, 
nevertheless,  as  he  says,  that  the  position  which  the  German  people  at 
present  holds  in  the  scientific  world,  it  owes  in  the  main  to  its  universities, 
and  these  owe  what  they  are  and  what  they  accomplish  to  the  principle 
on  which  they  are  based:  they  are  scientific  institutions  and  their  teachers 
are  scientific  investigators.  And  that  is  just  exactly  the  goal  at  which 
our  own  best  universities  are  aiming,  and  why  they  are  beginning  to  in- 
spire respect  in  foreign  lands." 

Professor  Paulsen  describes  the  German  ideal  of  professorial 
scholarship,  and  its  practical  consequences,  as  follows: 

"The  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  German  university  as  a  laboratory 
for  scientific  research  as  well  as  a  school  of  instruction  in  all  the  higher 
branches  of  general  and  professional  knowledge  becomes  at  once  apparent 
when  the  internal  organization  of  the  institution  is  considered.  Like 
the  English  universities,  it  offers  a  broad  and  deep  course  of  instruction 
in  the  arts  and  sciences.  This  is  the  special  province  of  the  philosophical 
faculty.  Like  the  French  facultes,  it  offers  technical  instruction  for  the 
learned  professions  in  that  it  trains  the  clergy,  judges  and  higher  officers 
of  administration,  physicians,  and  high  school  teachers.  But  it  is,  in 
addition,  what  the  English  and  French  universities  are  not,  namely, 
the  most  important  seat  of  scientific  work  in  Germany,  and  the  nursery 
of  scientific  investigation.  According  to  the  German  idea,  the  university 
professor  is  both  teacher  and  a  scientific  investigator,  and  such  emphasis 


302  LEADERS   IN    SCIENCE   AS   TEACHERS 

is  laid  upon  the  latter  function  that  one  ought  rather  to  say  that  in 
Germany  the  scientific  investigators  are  also  the  instructors  of  the  aca- 
demic youth.  .  .  .  The  important  thing  is  not  the  student's  prepara- 
tion for  a  practical  calling,  but  his  introduction  into  scientific  knowledge 
and  research. 

"This  intimate  union  of  investigation  and  instruction  gives  the  German 
university  its  peculiar  character.  There  are  excellent  scholars  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  but  no  one  would  speak  of  them  as  the  chief  representa- 
tives of  English  scientific  achievement.  .  .  .  But  even  the  English 
professors  are  not,  in  the  German  sense,  the  instructors  of  the  students. 
It  is  true,  they  deliver  scientific  lectures,  but  the  real  instruction  is 
usually  left  to  fellows  and  tutors.  In  France,  similarly,  the  scientific 
investigators,  the  great  scholars,  belong  to  the  Academy,  to  the  Institut 
de  France.  They  are  also,  perhaps,  members  of  the  College  de  France, 
or  of  the  Sorbonne,  and  as  such  they  deliver  public  lectures,  which  anyone 
may  attend.  But  they  are  not,  like  the  German  professors,  the  actual 
daily  teachers  of  the  students.  Nor  is  it  expected,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  the  members  of  the  different  faculties  in  France,  especially  in  the 
provinces,  should  be  independent  scientific  investigators. 

"In  Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  all 
university  professors  are  investigators  and  scholars,  and  that  all  investi- 
gators and  scholars  are  teachers  in  universities.  It  is  true,  there  have 
been  prominent  scholars  who  were  not  university  professors,  men  like 
Wilhelm  and  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  and  we  find  many  names  distin- 
guished for  scholarship  among  teachers  in  the  German  gymnasia.  It  is 
likewise  true  that  there  are  among  the  professors  not  only  men  who  never 
do  any  important  scholarly  work,  but  men  whose  sole  ambition  is  to  be 
good  teachers.  But  all  these  cases  are  exceptions.  The  rule  is  that  the 
professor  is  also  a  scholar.  Whenever  the  name  of  a  scholar  is  mentioned 
in  Germany,  the  question  is  at  once  asked,  with  what  university  is  he  con- 
nected? And  in  case  he  does  not  occupy  a  chair  in  such  an  institution, 
it  may  safely  be  assumed  that  he  himself  regards  this  fact  as  a  slight. 
Whenever,  on  the  other  hand,  a  professor  is  spoken  of,  the  question 
naturally  arises,  what  has  he  written,  what  contribution  has  he  made  to 
human  knowledge? 

"These  conditions  have  an  exceedingly  important  bearing  upon  our 
intellectual  life. 

"The  fact  that  he  is  always  an  academic  teacher  fixes  the  German 
scholar's  place  in  the  life  of  our  people.  Our  thinkers  and  investigators 


CONTACT    WITH    LEADERS    OF   THOUGHT  303 

not  only  write  books  for  us,  but  are  our  personal  instructors,  men  whom 
we  meet  face  to  face.  Men  like  Fichte,  Schelling,  Hegel,  and  Schleier- 
macher  influenced  their  times  primarily  as  academic  teachers;  their  in- 
fluence as  authors  was  not  so  very  great.  A  large  portion  of  their 
writings  was  published  after  their  death,  from  the  syllabi  of  their  lectures 
or  the  notes  taken  by  their  pupils.  Kant  and  Christian  Wolff  were  like- 
wise university  professors.  So  were  the  great  philologists,  Heyne,  F.  A. 
Wolf,  G.  Hermann,  and  Boeckh.  The  influence  of  these  men  was  felt 
especially  through  their  personal  activity  as  teachers;  and  their  pupils, 
who  became  teachers  in  their  turn  in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning, 
diffused  the  spirit  and  method  of  these  men  among  the  youth  of  the  land. 
Think  of  the  influence  which  historians  like  Ranke  and  Waitz  exerted 
through  their  seminars.  Call  to  mind  our  natural  scientists  and  math- 
ematicians, Gauss,  Liebig,  Helmholtz,  Kirchoff,  and  Weierstrass.  It  may 
safely  be  said  that  if  the  contributions  of  the  university  professors  were 
expunged  from  the  history  of  German  learning,  the  residue  would  not 
be  very  large.  It  must  also  be  added  that  several  of  our  illustrious  poets 
— Uhland  and  Eiickert,  Burger  and  Schiller,  Gellert  and  Haller — were 
university  professors.  The  influence  of  the  professor  upon  our  legal  and 
political  development  has  also  been  highly  significant.  Witness,  for  ex- 
ample, the  names  of  Pufendorf  and  Thomasius,  Savigny  and  Feuerbach, 
Niebuhr  and  Treitschke.  And  how  much  is  implied  in  the  fact  that  both 
Luther  and  Melanchthon  were  university  professors. 

"It  cannot  be  doubted  that  this  condition  is  a  fruitful  one  for  all  con- 
cerned. The  German  youths  who  come  into  direct  contact  with  the  intel- 
lectual leaders  of  the  people  at  the  universities  thus  receive  their  deepest 
and  most  lasting  impressions.  In  German  biographies  the  years  spent 
at  the  university  always  play  an  important  r6le,  and  it  not  seldom  hap- 
pens that  the  influence  of  a  professor  determines  the  intellectual  trend 
of  a  student's  life.  The  relation  is  a  pleasant  and  fruitful  one,  on  the 
other  hand,  for  the  scholars  and  investigators  themselves.  The  constant 
contact  with  the  young  enables  them  to  prolong  their  own  youth.  The 
direct,  personal  communication  of  thought  in  the  lecture  room  receives 
a  stimulus  and  animation  from  the  silent,  but  nevertheless  appreciable 
reaction  of  the  auditor  which  is  never  felt  by  the  solitary  author.  The 
hearer's  presence  serves,  moreover,  to  fix  the  teacher's  attention  always 
upon  the  essential  and  universal.  The  inclination  to  philosophize,  the 
trend  toward  generalizations  of  which  the  German  thinker  is  accused, 


304  ATTRACTION   OF  STRONGEST  SPIRITS 

is  assuredly  connected  with  the  fact  that  in  Germany,  more  than  anywhere 
•else,  knowledge  is  directly  produced  for  the  purpose  of  oral  instruction. 

"But  there  is  another  side  to  this  question.  The  pursuit  of  learning 
according  to  university  traditions  readily  displays  less  pleasing  phases 
of  our  intellectual  life.  It  gives  rise,  for  example,  to  a  tendency  to 
literary  overproduction,  to  scholasticism,  to  clannishness,  and  to  a  con- 
tempt for  those  who  are  outside  of  the  charmed  circle.  Such  treatment  is 
bitterly  resented  by  the  outsiders  and  often  leads  them  into  vehement 
.abuse  of  those  who  belong  to  the  'guild,'  a  practice  familiar  enough  to 
readers  of  Schopenhauer  and  Diihring.  It  is  certainly  more  difficult  for  a 
.scholar  to  succeed  outside  of  university  circles  in  Germany  than  in  England 
or  France.  Moreover,  if  intellectual  work  outside  of  the  universities  could 
•enjoy  a  larger  measure  of  prosperity,  it  would  serve  as  a  very  valuable 
•corrective  for  our  distinctively  academic  scholarship  by  supplying  it 
with  a  more  unbiased  viewpoint  for  many  things,  as  well  as  with  a  more 
reliable  standard  of  judgment.  But  certain  difficulties  grow  out  of  this 
relation  for  university  instruction  also.  This  is  especially  true  with 
regard  to  professional  training,  which  is  often  neglected  for  the  purely 
academic  treatment,  in  which  the  interests  of  research  are  alone  kept  in 
view.  This  difficulty  is  felt  just  now  by  all  the  faculties,  but  more  es- 
pecially by  those  of  philosophy  and  medicine. 

"However,  the  German  people  have  not,  on  the  whole,  any  cause  for  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  conditions  described.  In  Germany,  more  than  else- 
where, learning  is  deeply  cherished  by  the  nation,  and  this  is  due  entirely 
to  the  happy  circumstance  that  here  the  great  men  of  science  have  always 
been  the  personal  instructors  of  our  youth.  And  the  universities  themselves 
lave  every  reason  to  desire  a  continuation  of  things  as  they  are.  The 
secret  of  their  power  lies  in  their  ability  to  attract  and  hold  the  leading 
.spirits  of  the  land.  And  so  long  as  they  can  do  that  they  will  maintain 
the  position  which  they  have  won  for  themselves  in  the  life  of  our 
_people.  .  .  . 

"In  the  new  empire  .  .  .  men  of  talent  now  find  other  paths  to 
-•conspicuous  positions  open  to  them  besides  the  academic  career,  such  as 
parliament,  the  world  of  commerce,  the  colonies.  Energy  that  can  make 
itself  felt  finds  ample  room  for  activity  and  prospect  of  influence  and  profit. 
But  even  amid  these  changed  conditions  the  universities  have  maintained 
their  prominence  in  our  national  economy.  They  continue  to  be  important 
supporters  of  German  unity.  The  constant  interchange  of  both  professors 
students  between  the  several  states  of  the  empire  helps  materially 


INFLUENCE    ON    SECONDARY    SCHOOLS  305 

to  keep  alive  the  feeling  of  national  solidarity  in  the  separate  parts  of 
the  realm.  And  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  German  university  will  always 
cherish  her  reputation  as  the  mainstay  of  German  learning.  That  reputa- 
tion will  assuredly  follow  her  so  long  as  she  remains  true  to  her  tradi- 
tions and  keeps  alive  the  sincere  spirit  which  rejoices  in  knowledge  for  the 
sake  of  knowledge,  loves  the  truth  and  is  faithful  to  duty,  thereby  rising 
above  the  sordid  sense  of  loss  or  gain.  .  .  . 

"The  character  of  the  university  is  most  clearly  revealed  by  the 
faculty  of  philosophy,  in  which  research,  above  all  else,  is  the  con- 
trolling purpose.  In  the  other  faculties  the  dogmatic  transmission  of 
professional  knowledge  plays  a  greater  r6le,  and  their  exercises,  such 
as  the  clinics  of  the  medical,  the  homiletics  of  the  theological,  and  the 
practica  of  the  law  faculties,  are  all,  in  the  last  analysis,  technical  in  their 
nature.  The  philosophical  faculty,  on  the  contrary,  is  purely  theoretical. 
Its  teachers  are  the  true  exponents  of  scientific  research  and  its  students 
are  the  scholars  of  the  future.  ...  In  the  lectures  and  exercises  there 
is  scarcely  anything  to  show  that  the  hearers  are  destined  for  any  other 
calling  than  that  of  the  scholar.  That,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  them 
intend  to  take  up  teaching  as  a  profession,  scarcely  comes  into  considera- 
tion at  all.  The  conviction  prevails  that  the  first  and  essential  requisite 
for  this  profession  is  thorough  scholarship.  .  .  .  Hence  the  German 
gymnasial  teacher  looks  upon  himself  wholly  as  a  scholar,  at  least  at  the 
beginning  of  his  career  when  university  memories  are  most  keenly  alive 
in  him.  And  the  ablest  and  most  active  teachers  preserve  this  spirit 
through  life,  more  thoroughly  than  do  the  preachers  and  judges,  the  State 
officials  and  physicians.  These  are  almost  entirely  occupied  with  the  prac- 
tical demands  of  their  profession,  but  the  gymnasial  teacher  remains  a 
scholar  also  in  his  profession. 

"And  so  it  must,  by  all  means,  continue,  if  our  gymnasia,  our  philo- 
sophical faculties,  and  even  our  universities,  are  to  remain  what  they 
are.  If  the  gymnasial  teacher  should  cease  to  be  a  scholar  and  become 
simply  a  professional  teacher,  the  philosophical  faculty  would  likewise 
gradually  degenerate  into  a  mere  professional  school.  And  when  this 
faculty  ceases  to  be  a  nursery  of  pure  science,  the  character  of  the 
entire  university  will  undergo  a  change.  .  .  .  It  is  not  only  by  chance 
that  the  learned  Academies  are  throughout  Germany  a  kind  of  appendage 
to  a  philosophical  faculty.  And  it  also  seems  worthy  of  remark  that  the 
great  universities  of  the  United  States,  which  were  patterned  after  the 


306  AN   ULTIMATE   IDEAL 

German  universities,  are  really  indentical  with  the  philosophical  faculties 
of  the  latter. 

"I  must  not  fail  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  of  recent  years 
a  counter-current  to  this  development,  an  under-current  of  hostility  to 
the  scientific  activity  of  our  universities,  has  made  itself  felt  in  many 
ways.  Something  like  disappointment  is  perceptible  because  scientific  re- 
search does  not  seem  to  redeem  its  promise  to  supply  a  complete  and 
certain  theory  of  the  universe  and  a  practical  world-wisdom  grounded  in 
the  very  necessity  of  thought.  ...  A  new  generation,  as  distrustful 
of  reason  as  the  former  had  befen  of  faith,  turned  to  science  with  expec- 
tation that  exact  research  would  place  us  upon  a  sure  footing  and  supply 
us  with  a  true  theory  of  the  world.  But  that  science  cannot  do.  It  is 
becoming  more  and  more  evident  that  it  does  not  realize  such  an  all- 
comprehensive  world-view  that  will  satisfy  both  feeling  and  imagination. 
It  only  discovers  thousands  of  fragmentary  facts,  some  of  them  tolerably 
certain,  especially  in  the  natural  sciences,  which  at  least  supply  a  basis 
for  practice;  some  of  them  forever  doubtful,  forever  capable  of  revision, 
as  in  the  historical  sciences.  The  result  is  a  feeling  of  disappointment. 
Science  does  not  satisfy  the  hunger  for  knowledge,  nor  does  it  supply  the 
demand  for  personal  culture.  .  .  .  Such  disappointment  is  widespread. 
The  chief  bond  uniting  the  followers  of  Nietzsche  is  after  all  this  unbelief 
in  science;  periods  of  doubt  are  always  the  easiest  prey  of  charlatans. 
But  a  feeling  of  resignation  from  time  to  time  takes  possession  even  of 
scientific  circles,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  concluding  remarks  of  Harnack's 
Geschichte  der  Berliner  Akademie.  Is  it,  as  a  few  think,  the  premonitory 
symptom  of  the  bankruptcy  of  science,  its  abdication  in  favor  of  faith? 
Or  is  it  rather  a  natural  demand  for  ideas,  the  long  suppressed  demand 
for  philosophy  that  is  coming  to  life  again,  but  is  not  yet  quite  sure  of 
its  path  and  goal?" 

To  reach  the  goal  set  for  this  chapter  I  must  attempt  to  make 
at  least  an  approximate  statement  of  a  general  ideal  of  education 
as  a  result,  such  as  ought  to  dominate  and  direct  all  efforts  in 
education  as  a  process.  This  is  no  vague  or  unpractical  inquiry. 
It  will  depend  upon  some  such  ideal  whether  we  squander  effort  in 
vain  pursuits  or  exert  it  wisely  and  effectively.  From  the  same 
stone  may  be  built  a  house  of  kindness  or  a  fortress  of  greed :  it 
depends  upon  the  idea  of  the  building.  So  the  same  life  may 


AN   ULTIMATE   IDEAL  307 

grow  to  harmful  perversity  or  to  beneficent  power:  it  depends 
upon  the  idea  of  the  man.  The  significant  compelling  thing  is  the 
ideal.  The  ideal  will  fashion  the  vessel  for  strength  or  for  weak- 
ness, for  profit  or  harm,  for  honor  or  for  dishonor.  This  fact  is  at 
once  the  hope  and  the  despair  of  all  enlightened  educational  en- 
deavor. It  is  the  hope,  because  true  ideals  are  potent  to  triumph 
at  last  over  obstacles;  it  is  the  despair,  because  false  ideals  seem 
to  have  an  almost  equal  potency. 

All  have  heard  complaints  and  doubts  about  the  value  of  what 
the  speakers  call  education.  Such  strictures  upon  many  processes 
offered  by  teaching  institutions  as  "educational"  would  be  justi- 
fied, but  they  are  totally  mistaken  when  applied  to  genuine  educa- 
tion. When  education  is  dallied  with  or  sought  in  mistaken  ways 
it  is  costly  and  troublesome,  and  there  will  be  many  who  do  not 
believe  in  it  and  others  who  wish  they  did  not,  and  could  get  rid 
of  the  bother  of  it.  But  those  who  perceive  the  true  nature  of 
education  never  ask  what  it  costs,  never  harbor  a  doubt  about  it. 
They  condemn  false  imitations,  but  support  all  measures  promo- 
tive  of  genuine  results.  They  understand  that  education  aims 
at  intelligent  sympathy  with  every  human  activity,  and  in  its 
ultimate  effects  includes  those  elements  which  may  be  designated 
by  the  terms  character  and  piety.  They  know,  also,  that  the  high 
and  true  aim  in  education  is  the  practical  and  efficient  one,  simply 
because  material  utilities  are  included.  Does  it  make  one's  skill 
in  any  matter  less  marketable  because  he  sees  that  enlightened  char- 
acter and  inner  power  and  freedom  constitute  in  themselves  a  still 
better  reward  for  his  studies  than  the  wages  they  enable  him  to 
earn? 

One  of  Ruskin's  incisive  observations  will  serve  to  lead  on  to 
what  I  wish  to  say: 

"It  happens  that  I  have  some  connection  with  schools  for  different 
classes  of  youth,  and  I  receive  many  letters  from  parents  respecting 
the  education  of  their  children.  In  the  mass  of  those  letters,  I  am  always 


308  AN    ULTIMATE    IDEAL 

struck  by  the  precedence  which  the  idea  of  a  'position  in  life'  takes  above 
all  other  thoughts  in  the  parents' — more  especially  in  the  mothers' — 
minds.  They  never  seek,  as  far  as  I  can  make  out,  an  education  good  in 
itself,  but  an  education  which  shall  lead  to  'advancement  in  life.'  It  never 
seems  to  occur  to  the  parents  that  there  may  be  an  education  which  in 
itself  is  advancement  in  life,  and  that  any  other  than  that  may  perhaps 
be  advancement  in  death;  and  that  this  essential  education  might  be  more 
easily  got  or  given  than  they  fancy,  if  they  set  about  it  in  the  right  way; 
while  it  is  for  no  price  and  by  no  favor  to  be  got  if  they  set  about  it  in 
the  wrong." 

What  then  is  the  ideal  of  true  education?  Neither  knowledge 
nor  yet  mental  discipline  is  education.  The  value  of  knowledge  and 
mental  discipline  as  such  is  indeed  beyond  computation,  hut  they 
are  not  education — which  is  priceless.  They  are  the  material ;  edu- 
cation is  the  architecture.  Plain  stuff  may  be  edified  in  beauty 
or  in  ugliness,  and  costliest  material  may  be  piled  up  in  unsight- 
liness  or  in  glory,  and  whether  shall  be  the  fact,  lies,  within  certain 
limits,  not  is  the  nature  nor  in  the  amount  of  the  material  at  all. 
Even  so  are  knowledge  and  mental  discipline  related  to  education. 
The  profounder  and  ampler  the  knowledge,  the  fuller  and  sub- 
tler the  education  that  may  issue  from  it.  Yet  the  anti-type  of 
education,  more  antagonistic  to  it  than  rude  ignorance,  may  equally 
be  yielded.  This  is  what  Ruskin  means  when  he  says,  "this  essen- 
tial education  might  be  more  easily  got  or  given  than  they  fancy 
if  they  set  about  it  in  the  right  way,  while  it  is  for  no  price  and  by 
no  favor  to  be  got,  if  they  set  about  it  in  the  wrong."  Hence 
institutions  for  teaching  may  be,  according  to  the  spirit  that  pre- 
vails in  them,  educational  institutions,  or,  traitor-like,  the  deadliest 
foes  of  education.  It  discloses  little,  therefore,  as  to  the  educa- 
tional status  of  a  place  or  of  a  country  to  enumerate  its  teaching 
institutions,  or  even  to  show  their  success  in  imparting  much  and 
accurate  knowledge.  After  we  have  satisfied  ourselves  upon  these 
points,  we  have  but  passed  the  marches  of  inquiry.  Before  any 
teaching  may  be  rightly  called  educational  it  must  be  ascertained 


AN   ULTIMATE   IDEAL  309 

not  only  that  accurate  knowledge  results,  but  also  that  the  student 
is  being  put  on  the  way  of  education — put  on  the  way  of  education, 
for  it  is  a  process  that  lasts  as  long  as  life  lasts. 

What,  then,  is  the  touchstone  that  tests  the  educated  man  from 
the  merely  taught  man,  he  he  ever  so  learned  ?  For  I  have  known 
men  so  erudite,  and  so  skilled  in  the  manipulations  of  special  fields 
of  experimental  sciences,  that  in  their  narrow  ranges  they  spoke 
with  authority,  who  were  none  the  less  plainly  and  hopelessly 
uneducated  men.  Let  us  see  if  the  ideal  I  am  striving  to  define 
cannot  be  so  presented  that  it  will  be  recognized  as  a  truth  that 
each  one  has  ever  dimly  discerned.  I  know  it  came  to  me  in  this 
manner  more  than  twenty  years  ago  from  one  whose  voice — un- 
timely hushed  in  death — spoke  powerfully  for  a  brief  season  in  a 
university,  in  which,  after  twenty  years,  his  influence  is  vet  cher- 
ished by  a  few,  and  is  being  handed  on  amid  new  antagonistic  con- 
ditions created  by  subsequent  authorities  who  have  been  ignorant 
or  thoughtless  of  the  essential  things.  There  still  rings  in  my 
own  memory  an  inspiring  discourse  by  that  extraordinary  man, 
which,  unfortunately,  was  never  published  or  preserved  in  writing. 
Some  of  his  very  words,  however,  are  here  echoed,  and  the  lumi- 
nous truth  of  his  thesis  could  not  be  forgotten  by  a  competent 
hearer. 

I  believe  if  any  one  will  reflect  upon  what  characteristic  he 
deems  most  directly  antagonistic  to  that  of  being  educated,  he 
would  say  narrowness.  Ignorance  expresses  deficiency,  not  antago- 
nism. From  this  point  the  truth  may  be  leaped  to  at  once :  edu- 
cation is  intelligent  sympathy  with  all  branches  of  human  activity. 
To  be  intelligently  sympathetic  with  every  sort  of  activity  of 
human  head  and  heart  and  hand  is  to  be  educated.  Both  the 
intelligence  and  the  sympathy  must  coexist,  neither  blind  sympa- 
thy nor  unsympathetic  knowledge  yield  education,  but  the  indissol- 
uble wedlock  of  sympathy  and  knowledge.  Looking,  for  illustra- 
tion, to  the  products  of  the  higher  learning,  if  a  university  habitu- 


310  AN   ULTIMATE   IDEAL 

ally  sends  forth  entomologists  that  revile  palaeography,  or  archaeol- 
ogists despising  histology ;  if  generally  among  its  alumni  Euripides 
looks  askance  at  Newton  and  Lavoisier  thrusts  out  his  tongue  at 
Bopp,  however  great  as  a  place  of  teaching,  such  a  university  is  a 
deeducational  institution.  The  same  criterion  may  be  applied  all 
the  way  from  the  most  advanced  research  in  a  university  to  the 
ABC  class  in  a  primary  school.  Does  the  teaching  tend  to  make 
the  master  in  one  field  chilled  in  appreciation  and  dimmed  and 
blurred  in  his  vision  of  others ;  does  it  tend  to  persuade  the  bacca- 
laureate that  the  subject  whence  his  particular  course  has  radiated 
is  the  radiant  point  of  human  knowledge;  with  lad  or  maiden 
for  whom  a  summer's  day  brings  down  the  curtain  on  the  last 
act  of  high  school  life;  with  the  little  fellow  just  struggling 
through  a  syllabilized  reader,  does  it  tend  to  dry  up  the  fountains 
of  their  sympathy  and  turn  aside  the  waters  of  their  understanding 
from  all  save  certain  regions? — then,  I  say,  such  university  or 
college  or  high  school  or  primary  school  is  the  antipodes  of  an 
educational  institution.  The  great  word  of  the  Roman  play- 
wright— though  with  deeper  meaning  than  that  with  which  he 
charged  it — furnishes  the  criterion:  "I  am  a  man  and  nothing 
human  is  strange  to  me." 

Moreover,  it  is  of  primary  importance  that  every  teacher  should 
inculcate  by  the  silent  influence  of  a  broad  and  lofty  outlook  the 
fundamental  moral  principle  that  fixes  the  prerequisite  condition 
upon  which  any  high  purpose  may  be  attained,  namely,  that  it 
must  be  sought  honestly.  It  is  impossible  to  filch  this  guerdon  of 
a  well-aimed  and  well-spent  life.  For  instance,  no  man  can  be- 
come educated  so  long  as  he  has  in  mind  and  heart  only  the  money 
that  educated  men  are  able  to  earn.  Think  a  moment  how  many 
are  doomed  to  failure  by  this  immutable  moral  law.  A  man 
might  as  well  seek  to  win  the  joys  and  mighty  support  of  friend- 
ship with  any  selfish  or  ulterior  purpose  in  his  choice  of  friends. 
Such  a  man  is  eternally  forbidden  from  even  discovering  what 


IDEALS  311 

true  friendship  means.  It  is  thus  with  all  high  things, — seek 
them  with  a  pure  heart,  and  many  others  things  will  be  added  to 
us;  seek  them  with  a  base  purpose,  and  we  are  necessarily  ex- 
cluded. 


VI.    ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  CURRICULUM. 

In  this  chapter  we  come  to  the  crux  of  our  entire  subject  as  it 
is  viewed  by  a  much  disturbed  and  solicitous  public  opinion.  Both 
lay  and  professional  critics  commonly  discuss  the  college  curricu- 
lum by  complaining  against  subjects  of  study  as  here  or  there 
required  or  permitted,  and  offer  by  way  of  remedy  some  different 
prescription  for  nominal  studies  which,  in  the  individual's  opinion, 
would  be  better  suited  to  "preparation  for  life."  They  desire  to 
enforce  their  opinions  by  regulations  enacted  in  the  same  spirit 
and  manner  that  have  led  to  the  existing  conditions.  I  shall  con- 
sider the  administration  of  the  curriculum  in  an  entirely  different 
way.  If  I  imagined  that  I  knew  what  the  curriculum  of  the 
American  college  ought  to  be,  I  would  not  wish  to  see  my  opinion 
enforced  by  law.  It  is,  however,  perfectly  evident  that  nobody 
knows  what  the  college  curriculum  ought  to  be, — for  the  very 
sufficient  reason  that  it  ought  to  be  variable. 

Existing  College  Curricula 

It  would  be  profitless  to  exhibit  in  these  pages  the  incessantly 
shifting  maze  of  arbitrary  facts  presented  in  the  requirements  for 
the  A.  B.  degree  in  American  colleges  and  universities.  The  de- 
tails here  or  there,  yesterday  or  today,  are  mere  accidents  of  a  com- 
mon spirit  and  manner  of  legislation.  It  is  the  causes  of  an  erring 
tendency  that  need  to  be  considered.  The  incomprehensibility  of 
college  catalogs  has  become  a  by-word.  The  faculty  members  by 
whose  votes  requirements  were  enacted  do  not  pretend  to  know 
what  they  are.  The  students  curse  or  deride  them.  An  instance 
has  been  reported  in  which  the  students  added  the  following  regula- 
tion: "Rule  119.  Any  student  who  can  understand  these  rule? 
will  be  granted  a  degree  without  further  examination." 

If  any  reader  be  curious  about  details,  he  is  referred  to  Presi- 
dent W.  T.  Foster's  recent  book  on  the  college  curriculum.  Re- 


EXISTING   COLLEGE    CURRICULA  313 

quirements  for  the  A.  B.  degree  are  there  tabulated,  as  far  as  it  is 
practicable  to  reduce  the  facts  to  comparable  statements,  in  three 
tables : 

"Table  I  indicates  the  subjects  required  for  the  A.  B.  degree  in  twenty- 
nine  State  universities.  The  unit  used  is  the  year-hour, — one  hour  per 
week  for  academic  year.  .  .  .  The  amount  of  required  work  ranges 
from  three  hours  in  Wyoming  to  thirty-nine  and  one-half  in  Alabama. 
There  is  no  conspicuous  central  tendency,  and  the  average  deviation  of 
the  individual  institutions  from  their  average  is  great.  The  foot-notes 
to  Table  1  give  further  evidence  of  the  incomprehensible  action  of  college 
faculties  when  they  undertake  to  lay  down  arbitrary  restrictions  con- 
cerning the  curriculum  for  all  students.  The  vast  amount  of  miscella- 
neous experimenting  with  the  college  curriculum  that  has  produced  the 
temporary  results  set  forth  in  this  table  gives  point  to  the  remark  of 
Professor  Cattell  that  the  collective  unwisdom  of  a  college  faculty  is  not 
often  exceeded  by  an  individual  student.  Any  one  who  has  observed  a  col- 
lege faculty  make  a  decision  at  one  meeting  and  promptly  reverse  it  at  the 
next,  without  a  particle  of  new  evidence  on  the  issue,  is  not  unreasonably 
skeptical  concerning  the  stability  or  the  worth  of  the  regulations  summa- 
rized in  these  tables. 

"Table  II  presents  the  subjects  required  for  the  A.  B.  degree  and  the 
number  of  year-hours  allotted  to  each  in  certain  universities  under  private 
control.  [Fourteen  leading  endowed  universities,  followed  by  nine  leading 
colleges  for  women.] 

"Table  III  presents  the  practice  of  forty  small  colleges  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  It  would  seem  that  the  almost  innumerable  differences  here  re- 
vealed must  shake  the  confidence  of  any  faculty  in  the  wisdom  of  its 
absolute  prescriptions,  and  yet  the  table  excludes  those  colleges  exhibiting 
the  greatest  idiosyncrasies  in  their  requirements.  So  widely  divergent  are 
the  regulations  of  a  hundred  other  colleges  included  in  this  investigation 
that  it  would  be  impossible  to  include  them  in  any  useful  table." 

In  view  of  such  facts  President  Foster  justly  comments: 

"College  catalogs  from  all  parts  of  the  country  tell  us  that  students 
are  required  to  pursue  those  subjects  that  are  universally  regarded  as 
essential  to  a  liberal  education.  It  would  be  pertinent  to  ask  the  writers 
of  such  statements  to  examine  Tables  I,  II,  III,  and  then  name  those  sub- 
jects that  are  universally  regarded  as  essential  to  a  liberal  education. 


314  EXISTING  COLLEGE   CURRICULA 

It  there  one?  Even  the  general  prescription  of  English  is  an  agreement 
in  name  only;  what  actually  goes  on  under  this  name  is  so  diverse  as  to 
show  that  we  have  not  yet  discovered  an  'essential'  course  in  English.  And 
this  is  our  nearest  approach  to  agreement." 

Requirements  concerning  concentration  and  distribution  of 
studies  show  similar  arbitrariness  and  confusion.  The  facts  in 
detail  are  given  by  Foster  in  his  tables  VIII,  IX,  and  X.  They 
correspond  in  the  institutions  considered  to  the  tables  I,  II,  III 
already  described;  but  several  institutions  had  to  be  omitted  from 
each,  because  their  requirements  were  not  "sufficiently  free  from 
excessive  complications  and  eccentricities,  to  render  tabulation 
possible." 

"Even  these  groups  of  colleges  and  universities,  selected  for  the  relative 
eimplicity  of  their  requirements,  present  great  diversity  and  complexity 
as  their  most  striking  features.  In  the  number  of  subjects  required,  in  the 
number  of  year-hours  unrestricted,  in  the  proportion  of  work  called  for 
by  the  major  subject,  in  the  proportion  controlled  by  the  major  adviser, 
in  the  amount  prescribed  for  distribution,  in  the  maximum  and  minimum 
allowances  for  groups,  there  is  no  uniformity,  not  even  any  significant 
central  tendencies. 

"Here,  as  in  the  attempt  to  prescribe  'essential'  subjects,  the  actual 
practices  of  colleges  all  over  the  country  reveal  no  guiding  principles. 

.  .  .  So  innocent  of  abiding  cause  are  these  miscellaneous  and  con- 
tradictory regulations  that  the  tables  will  be  out  of  date,  no  doubt,  shortly 
after  they  are  printed.  Indeed,  such  administrators  as  actually  enforce 
these  rules  must  be  hard  put  to  it  for  reasons,  unless  their  students  are 
uncommonly  docile." 

Here  (as  in  a  flood  of  more  superficial  criticism  that  is  being 
vented  from  all  sides)  the  lack  of  uniformity,  appears  to  be  con- 
ceived as  a  vice  in  itself.  On  the  contrary,  uniformity  would  be 
a  symptom  of  decadence,  and  would  be  possible  only  under  con- 
ditions of  stagnation,  or  of  arbitrary  and  absolute  external  con- 
trol. The  mere  fact  of  difference  in  requirements  for  the  degree 
is  not  the  cause  of  the  unsatisfactory  results,  complained  of  with 
justice  but  commonly  mis-diagnosed  as  to  cause.  Maladminis- 


DISSATISFYING   CONSEQUENCES  315 

tration  of  college  curricula  has,  in  each  case,  its  ultimate  causes 
in  various  errors  of  fundamental  organization.  Its  results,  which, 
in  their  turn  cause  the  most  dissatisfying  consequences,  are  (1) 
the  low  quality  of  some  required  courses  of  instruction,  as  compared 
with  others  in  the  same  institution,  (2)  the  imposition  by  some 
institutions  of  their  own  particular  requirements  upon  students 
having  credit  for  one  or  more  years'  work  in  another  equal  or 
superior  college,  and  (3)  the  moral  effect  of  enforcing  any  require- 
ments which  are  no  better  than  some  other  arrangement  of  studies 
desired  by  an  individual  student. 

The  first  mentioned  result  creates  a  condition  by  which  students 
are  driven  to  sit  under  a  weakling  from  whom  they  are  aware 
that  nothing  is  to  be  gained.  The  natural  and  wholesome  com- 
petition, whereby  each  instructor  should  stand  mainly  upon  his 
merits,  is  thus  prevented.  The  unfit  are  upheld  as  much  as  the 
fit.  The  administration  is  of  things  "on  paper."  Realities  are 
ignored. 

The  second  result  creates  conditions  whereby  a  year's  good  work 
in  an  equal  or  superior  college  is  wantonly  discounted,  without 
even  the  pretense  of  an  intrinsic  reason.  "It  is  our  regulation. 
We  cannot  make  an  exception,"  explains  the  admitting  official. 
The  matriculant  must  acquiesce.  He  assumes  the  extra  burdens 
imposed  upon  him,  and  the  Administration  sits  smugly  uncon- 
scious of  the  consequences.  But  the  lack  of  justice  and  intelli- 
gence is  obvious.  The  respect  and  confidence  of  the  young  man 
are  more  or  less  forfeited.  The  irrational  perplexities  and  diffi- 
culties presented  in  this  country  to  every  college  student  who  for 
any  reason  is  about  to  transfer  from  one  college  to  another,  engen- 
der an  irritation  and  contempt  which  is  becoming  widespread. 
The  public  and  many  college  deans  and  presidents  seem  to  be 
blindly  seeking  a  remedy  in  "uniformity"  or  "standardization." 
No  uniform  curriculum  is  either  possible  or  desirable. 

The  third  result  creates  an  atmosphere  of  "red  tape."  It  meets 
the  students  at  every  turn.  They  are  incessantly  puzzling  over 


316  THE   REMEDY 

endless  permutations  and  combinations  offered  by  complicated  reg- 
ulations. Year  by  year  the  requirements  change.  A  student  de- 
siring the  counsel  of  an  elder  comrade,  hears:  "Literature  lOb 
is  all  right,  I  am  getting  more  out  of  it  than  from  any  other 
course.  But  you  can't  take  it  and  count."  "How's  that?"  "You 
have  had  three  courses  in  English  and  three  in  Literature  already, 
and  six  is  the  limit.*  Besides,  in  the  way  you  have  followed 
your  group,  you  must  take  one  course  in  Public  Speaking."  "Have 
you  had  that?"  "No,  but  I  entered  under  the  1909  catalog  and 
we  don't  have  to  take  this  new  dope."  "But  Professor  A —  advised 
me  to  take  that  course  in  Literature."  "They  won't  let  it  count; 
and  you  will  be  compelled  to  take  Public  Speaking.  See  the 
Dean,  if  you  don't  believe  me."  College  students  are,  of  course, 
not  competent  judges  of  technical  questions,  nor  are  they  guilty 
of  or  disposed  to  any  such  presumption.  But  ingenuous  young 
men  are  good  judges  of  the  spirit  and  mass  effect  of  any  disci- 
pline to  which  they  are  subjected.  The  men  in  the  ranks  do  not 
presume  to  judge  strategy  or  grand  tactics,  yet  they  shrewdly 
know  when  orders  are  vacillating  or  aimless;  and  when  his  officer 
is  "rattled"  the  predicament  is  very  plain  to  Tommy  Atkins. 
While  college  presidents  and  deans  are  publishing  their  grave 
anxieties  about  student-problems,  college  students  all  over  the 
land — with  less  gravity  but  with  equal  seriousness  and  more  sin- 
cerity— are  deploring  the  obtuseness  and  vagaries  of  their  gov- 
ernors. If  the  humor  of  the  situation  were  generally  discerned, 
our  academic  fogs  would  be  blown  away  as  a  clear  breeze  disperses 
the  watery  vapor  of  the  atmosphere. 

In  short,  the  remedy  is  not  some  new  arrangement  of  complex 
arbitrary  requirements.  Improvement  should  be  sought  in  sim- 
plification and  in  appreciation  of  quality  in  the  teaching  and  in 


•Harvard  says:  "Every  student  shall  take  at  least  six  courses  in 
some  one  department."  Some  other  colleges  refuse  to  give  credit  for 
more  than  six  courses  in  one  department,  e.  g.,  University  of  Texas  says: 
"Not  more  than  six  courses  may  be  counted  in  one  subject,  not  more 
than  six  in  English  and  General  Literature  together." 


A   REACTIONARY   DEPARTURE  317 

the  learning,  instead  of  by  exacting  nominal  particulars.  The 
latter  have  generally  been  adopted  by  accidental  or  subservient 
majorities  at  perfunctory  faculty  meetings.  A  university  could 
protect  itself  and  the  genuineness  of  its  degrees  more  effectively 
by  judging  the  work  of  an  advanced  student,  after  he  has  been 
admitted,  on  the  face  value  of  the  number  of  years  spent  at 
another  reputable  college,  than  by  superciliously  discounting  devi- 
ations from  its  own  vacillating  requirements.  The  courses  of  each 
department  could  protect  themselves  by  logical  prerequisites.  The 
only  essential  general  requirement  is  a  suitable  number  of  advanced 
courses  in  the  total  number  of  courses  required  for  the  degree. 
Every  department  should  demand  ability  to  write  correct  English.* 

Harvard's  new  departure,  which  went  into  effect  with  the  class 
of  1914,  after  forty  years  of  free  election,  is  the  most  deliberate 
and  carefully  constructed  plan  for  compulsory  concentration  and 
compulsory  scattering  that  has  been  devised.  For  the  17  courses 
(or  17£  under  certain  circumstances)  required  for  the  Harvard 
A.  B.  degree,  the  new  rules  demand: 

"I.  Every  student  shall  take  at  least  six  of  his  courses  (a  course  is 
3  year-hours)  in  some  one  department,  or  in  one  of  the  recognized  fields 
for  distinction.  In  the  latter  case  four  must  be  in  one  department. 


*The  first  Board  of  Visitors  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  in  accordance 
with  Jefferson's  wish,  provided  that  two  degrees  should  be  conferred  by 
the  University.  The  louver  degree,  characteristic  of  the  institution  for 
many  years,  was  conferred  upon  a  student  who  had  completed  all  the 
work  offered  in  any  one  School;  to  such  a  candidate  the  untitled  degree 
of  "Graduate"  of  the  School  in  question  should  be  given.  (Each  distinct 
branch  of  knowledge  was,  as  far  as  practicable,  assigned  to  an  individual 
"School"  with  its  own  instructors.)  The  other,  the  higher  degree,  was  to 
be  the  Doctor's  degree  and  was  to  be  given  to  the  graduate  in  two  or  more 
Schools  who  had,  in  addition,  exhibited  well  developed  powers  of  research. 
The  first  faculty,  however,  soon  substituted  (in  1831)  the  Master's  degree, 
common  in  England,  and  for  more  than  half  a  century  the  degree  "Master 
of  Arts  of  the  University  of  Virginia"  was  the  leading  titled  degree  con- 
ferred by  the  University  of  Virginia.  For  the  degree  of  graduate  of  any 
School  the  faculty  required:  "In  all  cases  the  candidate  shall  give  the 
Faculty  satisfactory  proof  of  his  ability  to  write  the  English  language 
correctly." 


318  A  BE  ACTION  ART  DEPARTURE 

Only  two  of  the  six  may  be  courses  open  to  Freshmen  or  distinctly  elemen- 
tary in  character. 

[Twelve  pages  of  fine  print  in  the  Catalogue  state  some  of  the  provi- 
sions alluded  to  in  the  words  "recognized  fields  for  distinction."] 

"II.  For  purposes  of  distribution  all  the  courses  open  to  undergraduates 
shal  be  divided  among  the  following  four  general  groups.  Every  student 
shall  distribute  at  least  six  of  his  courses  among  the  three  general  groups 
in  which  his  chief  work  does  not  lie,  and  he  shall  take  in  each  group  not 
less  than  one  course,  and  not  less  than  three  in  any  two  groups.  He 
shall  not  count  for  purposes  of  distribution  more  than  two  courses  which 
are  also  listed  in  the  group  in  which  his  main  work  lies. 

[The  four  groups  regulating  the  scattering  of  6  courses, — leaving  5 
courses  unconditionally  elective.] 

"III.  Prescribed  work  shall  not  count  either  for  concentration  or  dis- 
tribution." 

[Upon  various  conditions,  one,  one  and  a  half,  two,  two  and  a  half 
courses  may  be  prescribed.] 

Dean  Briggs  has  explained  that  Harvard's  "new  scheme  of  col- 
lege instruction  is  more  radical  in  principle  than  in  its  probable 
effect  on  the  elective  studies  of  the  general  student  body,  and  is 
not  meant  to  be  violently  revolutionary."  He  values  the  new 
scheme  (i.  e.,  new  at  Harvard)  "as  a  guide  and  regulator  to  the 
student  entangled  in  the  elective  pamphlet." 

I  offer  no  objection  to  the  new  Harvard  program  "as  a  guide." 
As  a  hortative  proposal,  let  us  grant  it  substantial  merit.  But 
it  is  not  a  guide.  It  is  a  compulsory  law.  Its  vice  lies  in  its 
imperative  mood.  The  voice  of  the  Faculty  is  not  speaking  in 
calm  counsel — "Every  student  is  advised  to  take";  the  utterance 
is  peremptory — "Every  student  shall  take  at  least  six  courses  in 
one  department."  The  wise  spirit  and  art  of  persuasion  and 
guidance  have  been  crowded  aside  in  every  sphere  of  our  social 
life  by  an  overweening  disposition  to  enforce  opinions  by  law. 

If  one  does  not  regard  the  spirit  of  this  matter  of  degree  require- 
ments, its  importance  is  diminished  almost  to  a  vanishing  point. 
It  would  surprise  those  who  are  agitating  themselves  and  their 
fellow  citizens  on  the  subject,  if  they  paused  to  find  out  how 


STATISTICAL   COMPAKISONS  319 

little  their  adored  averages  are  changed  by  the  reek  of  law-making. 
President  Foster  exposes  the  practical  ineffectiveness  of  the  devices 
for  compulsory  concentration  and  compulsory  scattering  by  com- 
parisons with  the  actual  choices  of  students  under  free  election 
in  the  same  and  other  institutions.  He  says: 

"The  best  available  evidence  on  this  question  is  the  programs  of  study 
actually  chosen  under  the  Elective  System.  ...  Of  one  thousand 
men  from  the  Classes  of  1908  and  1909  in  Harvard  College,  only  about 
20  per  cent  met  all  the  requirements  of  the  new  rules.  Had  those  re- 
strictions been  in  force,  about  half  of  these  students  would  have  been 
compelled  to  change  one  or  two  courses.  Only  a  few  would  have  needed 
as  many  as  five  changes  in  their  programs.  .  .  . 

"Fifty  complete  programs  of  study  taken  at  random,  alphabetically, 
from  the  Class  of  1909  at  Harvard,  and  an  equal  number  from  the  Class 
of  1909  at  Yale,  reveal  the  following  facts.  At  Harvard  22  per  cent,  at 
Yale  68  per  cent,  did  not  take  one-third  of  their  work  in  one  subject. 
Only  one  student  at  Harvard  and  only  two  at  Yale  failed  to  take  one- 
fourth  of  their  work  in  one  subject.  Seventeen  men  at  Harvard  and 
only  one  at  Yale  took  no  courses  in  science;  ten  at  Harvard  took  no 
courses  in  philosophy  or  mathematics;  two  at  Harvard  elected  no  course 
in  the  history  group.  There  were  no  other  instances  in  either  college 
of  the  omission  by  any  student  of  one  of  the  four  groups  of  studies.  This 
is  evidence  that  the  Harvard  plan  for  restricting  the  Elective  System  i» 
likely  to  influence  but  few  choices  at  Harvard." 

The  only  serious  objection  to  the  Harvard  program  if  it  were  a 
question  of  advice,  rests  upon  the  concentration  requirement,  which 
may  be  deemed  excessive  for  the  majority  of  students.  The  effect 
of  the  requirements  for  distribution  is  almost  nil.  The  Harvard 
concentration  requirement  forces,  in  any  case,  more  than  one-third 
(6-17)  of  the  four  years'  work  to  be  taken  in  one  subject — with 
the  allowance  concerning  "fields  for  distinction";  and  in  case  a 
student  concentrates  on  a  subject  prescribed  for  the  freshman  year, 
seven-seventeenths  of  all  studies  must  be  in  one  subject,  as  the 
prescribed  course  will  not  be  counted.  Few  students  in  other  col- 
leges specialize  to  the  full  extent  required  by  the  Harvard  rules. 
A  Committee  on  Collegiate  Instruction  of  the  Education  Section 


320  STATISTICAL   COMPARISONS 

of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  col- 
lected, in  1910,  five  hundred  complete  records  of  the  courses  taken 
for  the  baccalaureate  degree  by  students  in  leading  colleges.  The 
samples  from  each  institution  were  selected  at  random.  The  tables 
prepared  by  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  Prof.  E.  L.  Thorn- 
dike,  give  the  individual  records.  They  cannot  be  summarized. 
They  show  that  "few  students  specialized  to  the  extent  of  six 
three-hour  courses  in  one  subject.  Of  the  200  programs  from 
Princeton,  Williams,  Columbia,  Wabash,  Beloit,  Wesleyan,  and 
Wellesley,  171  indicate  no  such  degree  of  concentration." 

The  question  whether  or  not  the  students  of  a  typical  small  col- 
lege, operating  under  a  free  elective  system,  show  any  need  for  such 
control  as  would  be  enforced  by  the  Harvard  rules,  is  answered 
by  President  Foster  for  those  who,  from  lack  of  experience,  need 
the  statistical  evidence.  Men  with  adequate  experience  coupled 
with  good  judgment  could  have  foretold  substantially  the  result 
of  the  investigation: 

"There  can  be  no  better  way  to  consider  the  need  of  a  small  college 
for  such  rules  as  Harvard  has  adopted  than  to  examine  the  actual  pro- 
grams developed  under  free  election.  A  study  of  the  entire  courses  of  all 
the  graduates  of  Bowdoin  College  of  the  Class  of  1909  is  therefore  pro- 
fitable. This  class  of  fifty-four  members  took  its  entire  work  under  an 
Elective  System  which,  for  our  present  purposes,  may  be  regarded  as 
virtually  unrestricted.  It  is  true  that  each  student  was  obliged  to  com- 
plete before  graduation  either  one  major  and  two  minor  subjects  or  two 
major  subjects.  A  major  subject  was  one  pursued  for  three  consecutive 
years.  A  minor  subject  was  one  pursued  for  two  years.  A  detailed  study 
of  all  the  electives  of  five  classes,  however,  supplemented  by  personal  in- 
quiry, revealed  the  fact  that  apparently  not  more  than  one  or  two  students 
in  any  class  were  limited  in  their  choice  by  these  rules.  Above  90  per 
cent  of  all  the  students  concentrated  their  work  in  excess  of  the  prescribed 
amount.  Finally,  since  every  student  took  more  hours  in  the  language 
and  literature  group  than  the  rules  specified,  and  since  he  was  at  liberty 
entirely  to  ignore  the  other  three  groups,  we  can  here  discover  to  what 
extent  the  Harvard  regulations,  had  they  been  operative,  would  have 


STATISTICAL   COMPARISONS  321 

modified   the  fifty-four   individual  programs,  which  were,   in  fact,  under 
no  such  restrictions. 

"The  concentration  requirement,  if  interpreted  literally,  would  have 
changed  every  program  in  the  class.  No  student  took  one-third  of  his 
courses  in  one  subject.  Eleven  took  14-19  per  cent  in  their  major  sub- 
ject; twenty  took  20-24  per  cent;  twenty -one  took  25-30  per  cent;  two 
took  33  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  inquire  how  many  elected  one- 
third  of  their  work  from  advanced  courses  in  language  and  literature,  we 
find  that  at  Bowdoin  all  but  four  of  the  class  chose  this  degree  of  con- 
centration. The  student  who  devoted  the  smallest  proportion  of  his  time 
to  his  major  group  gave  36  per  cent  to  natural  sciences  and  29  per  cent 
to  language  and  literature.  Three  of  the  four  exceptions  just  noted  were 
students  who  received  honors  from  the  faculty  and  whose  electives  would 
have  been  approved  by  any  committee  instructed  "to  make  exceptions 
to  the  rules  freely  in  the  case  of  earnest  men'*.  .  .  . 

"With  reference  to  the  Harvard  rules  for  distribution  among  the  three 
groups  other  than  the  student's  major  group,  the  electives  of  these  fifty- 
four  Bowdoin  men  exhibit  the  following  results:  four  students  fell  one- 
half  course  short  of  the  requirement  in  natural  science;  four  students 
fell  one  course  short,  and  one  student  fell  one-half  course  short  of  the 
requirement  in  history,  political  and  social  sciences;  three  students  fell 
one-half  course  short  of  the  requirement  in  philosophy  and  mathematics; 
no  student  failed  to  meet  the  requirement  in  language  and  literature. 

"To  satisfy  the  complicated  Harvard  rules  regarding  the  distribution 
of  the  six  courses  among  the  three  groups,  five  students  would  have  been 
obliged  to  substitute  for  a  choice  in  literature  a  course  in  one  of  the 
other  groups.  Such  are  the  few  scattering  cases  that  would  have  been 
slightly  affected  by  the  new  Harvard  rules,  had  these  rules  been  operative, 
and  had  the  committee  not  included  these  few  cases  within  the  excuse 
limits  of  their  liberal  instructions.  Each  of  these  students  could  have 


*The  reference  is  to  instructions  that  have  been  given  by  the  Harvard 
Faculty  to  a  committee: 

"The  Committee  on  the  Choice  of  Electives  was  instructed  in  admin- 
istering these  general  rules  for  the  choice  of  electives  by  candidates  for  a 
degree  in  Harvard  College  to  make  exceptions  to  the  rules  freely  in  the 
case  of  earnest  men  who  desire  to  change  at  a  later  time  the  plans  made 
in  their  Freshman  year,  and  to  make  liberal  allowances  for  earnest  stu- 
dents who  show  that  their  courses  are  well  distributed,  even  though  they 
may  not  conform  exactly  to  the  rules  laid  down  for  distribution.  In 
making  exceptions  to  the  rules,  a  man's  previous  training  and  outside  read- 
ing are  to  be  taken  into  account." — Dean's  Report. 


322  ELECTIVE   SYSTEM 

presented  adequate  reasons  for  his  slight  departure  from  the  necessarily 
arbitrary  scheme  which  its  devisers  agree  should  be  administered  with  free 
allowance  for  individual  needs.  Even  without  such  allowances,  less  than 
two  per  cent  of  the  units  in  the  total  schedules  of  this  class  would  have 
been  changed  by  the  Harvard  distribution  rules.  If,  therefore,  the  total 
experience  of  this  class  is  any  criterion  by  which  to  judge  the  future, — 
and  no  better  one  is  possible, — the  adoption  by  Bowdoin  of  the  Harvard 
scattering  requirements  would  have  only  a  negligible  effect.  Nearly,  if  not 
all,  that  the  new  plan  for  compulsory  distribution  of  studies  at  Harvard 
aims  to  achieve  is,  in  fact,  already  achieved  under  the  much  more  restricted 
curriculum  ["curriculum"  is  here  used  in  the  sense  of  all  courses  offered] 
and  the  virtually  unrestricted  Elective  System  of  a  typical  small  college." 

fclL-  It 

The  Elective  System 

The  curriculum  requirements  in  the  majority  of  American  col- 
leges, respecting  either  concentration  or  scattering,  have  little  or  no 
effect  for  their  avowed  purpose.  It  is  a  statistical  fact  that  they 
are  more  than  fulfilled  under  free  election.  This  fact  exposes  the 
caliber  of  the  men  who  dominate  the  faculties  that  moil  and  stew 
over  the  concoction  of  such  regulations.  It  may  be  said  in  exten- 
uation that  there  has,  perhaps,  been  no  other  ready  way  for  the 
better  men  to  hold  in  check  those  who  insist  on  making  laws  for 
everything.  A  tub  has  been  thrown  to  the  whale.  Behemoth 
swallows,  and  for  a  while  imagines  himself  satisfied.  But  his 
appetite  for  law-making  soon  reawakens,  and  the  stew  begins  over 
again  for  a  new  set  of  rules. 

The  general  public  has  been  misled  on  a  question  of  fact  by  a 
clamor  raised  against  the  elective  system  by  "educators"  who 
lifted  up  their  voices  to  bewail  the  passing  of  prescribed  curricula. 
As  an  echo  of  that  uproar,  sporadic  complaints  continue  to  be 
made  that  students  under  the  elective  system  scatter  studies  over 
so  many  subjects  that  there  ought  to  be  a  return  to  a  thoroughly 
prescribed  curriculum.  Such  persons  would  be  astonished  to  learn 
that  the  truth  is  the  opposite  of  their  assumption.  Practically  no 
student  under  free  election  scatters  his  studies  as  much  as  all 


WHY   PRESCRIBED   CURRICULA   BROKE   DOWN  323 

students  were  compelled  to  do  in  the  patchwork  of  the  latter  days 
of  prescribed  curricula — after  the  various  physical  sciences  re- 
quired recognition.  The  prescribed  curriculum  broke  down  of  its 
own  weight  for  the  very  reason  that  it  forced  every  student  to 
an  excessively  scattered  schedule  of  meager  courses.  Its  advocates 
who  opposed  the  free  election  of  studies  never  discerned  what  the 
real  trouble  was.  Those  who  now  regret  the  old  prescription,  and 
the  few  who  still  persist  in  practicing  it,  are  in  the  same  predica- 
ment. President  Eliot  testifies  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  expe- 
rience and  discriminating  observation,  that  the  worst  choices  made 
by  negligent  students  under  free  election  are  merely  counterparts 
of  the  old  prescribed  courses.  The  reader  is  referred  to  his  inspir- 
ing chapter  on  The  Elective  System.  I  can  quote  only  a  few  of 
his  wise  statements  concerning  several  points  that  seem  to  be 
most  frequently  talked  about  without  knowledge: 

"The  elective  system  lias  been  described  by  its  opponents  as  a  wide- 
open,  miscellaneous  bazaar.  .  .  .  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the 
facts  than  this  description.  An  elective  system  presupposes  a  well-ordered 
series  of  consecutive  courses  in  each  large  subject  of  instruction.  .  .  . 
The  series  of  subjects  is  natural  and  plain,  except  for  the  unexplained  gaps 
which  often  occur  in  the  series, — gaps  due  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  in- 
stitution's resources.  ...  In  each  subject  the  schedule  of  courses 
should  be  in  the  highest  degree  orderly  and  consecutive*,  rising  from  the 
elementary,  comprehensive  course,  through  courses  of  greater  and  greater 
difficulty,  becoming  more  and  more  intensive,  until  the  summit  is  reached 
in  the  conferences  or  seminars  which  take  advanced  students  to  the 
limits  of  knowledge  in  that  subject.  It  is  obvious  that  a  university  which 
undertakes  thus  to  deal  with  all  [or  many]  subjects  of  knowledge  must 
offer  a  very  large  total  of  different  courses,  and  that  in  a  certain  sense, 
therefore,  the  choice  of  the  individual  student  has  a  large  range;  but 
it  is  equally  obvious  that  in  the  list  or  schedule  of  courses  in  a  given  di- 


*"Catalogs  are  sometimes  purposely  misleading.  That  is  a  different 
matter.  In  matters,  however,  which  it  is  the  intention  to  make  clear, 
there  is  often  difficulty  for  college  officials  to  interpret  the  catalog 
of  another  institution.  What  would  the  average  university  catalog  then 
be  for  a  boy  just  completing  the  high  school?" — Pres.  Kane,  University 
of  Washington. 


324  ELECTIVE   SYSTEM 

vision  or  department  of  knowledge  the  choice  of  the  individual  student 
has  strenuous  limitations.  Thus,  the  beginner  must  take  the  elementary 
course  first,  and  he  must  then  advance  through  the  schedule  of  the  de- 
partment by  well-marked  steps.  .  .  .  The  department  announcements 
contain  numerous  prescriptions  concerning  the  sequence  of  courses.  He 
cannot  take  two  courses  which  occur  in  the  time-tables  at  the  same  hour; 
and  the  time-tables  may  be  systematically  used  to  prevent  unwise  combi- 
nations of  courses.  .  .  . 

"The  first  effect  of  the  elective  system  on  the  individual  student  who 
has  intellectual  ambition  is  always  to  get  more  work  from  him.  It  also 
makes  him  sooner  a  productive  person,  that  is,  a  contributor  to  the  sum 
of  knowledge.  This  is  the  primary  object  of  the  elective  system, — to 
make  the  serious  student  work  hard,  accomplish  something  worth  while, 
and  so  win  power  and  happiness.  .  .  . 

"But  how  is  it  with  the  college  student  who  is  not  serious?  .  .  .  His 
total  selection  of  courses  will  probably  resemble  the  old  prescribed  course 
in  the  American  college,  that  is,  it  will  remain  in  the  elements  of  all  sub- 
jects, .  .  .  and  it  will  contain  a  greater  variety  of  subjects  than  any 
ambitious  student  will  include  in  his  programme.  It  will,  however,  be 
a  course  which  will  procure  from  the  chooser  more  work  than  such  a 
person  would  ever  have  done  under  a  prescribed  system;  because  in  some 
degree  it  is  selected  on  the  ground  of  the  mental  interests  of  the  individual, 
or  on  the  ground  of  the  attractive  and  influential  personality  of  some 
teacher  or  teachers. 

"It  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the  value  of  an  elective  system 
for  the  lowest  quarter  of  a  college  class.  It  not  only  gets  much  more 
work  out  of  that  quarter,  but  also  offers  them  their  only  chance  of  ex- 
periencing an  intellectual  awakening  while  in  college.  By  following,  though 
almost  unconsciously,  their  natural  bent,  such  young  men  have  the  best 
chance  of  developing  some  power  of  application,  and  some  desire  for  intel- 
lectual achievement.  The  object  of  the  elective  system  for  a  student  dis- 
posed to  follow  the  line  of  least  resistance  is  to  give  him  a  chance  to  get 
roused  from  his  childish  state  of  mind  and  will,  and  to  feel  stirring  within 
him  the  motives  of  a  considerate  and  fore-looking  adult. 

"There  is  another  class  of  students  to  whom  an  elective  method  is  a 
great  blessing,  namely,  the  late-developing  young  men,  and  the  young 
men  whose  minds  are  not  quickened  by  any  of  the  subjects  usually  taught 
in  secondary  schools.  The  old  prescribed  college  curriculum,  which  was 
in  the  main  a  continuation  of  school  subjects,  rarely  offered  these  men 
any  new  advantages  or  opportunities;  but  the  wide-ranging  elective  sys- 


GROUP   SYSTEMS  325 

tern  may  easily  give  them  extrance  to  fields  in  which  they  have  some  chance 
to  excel.  Here,  again,  an  elective  system  brings  opportunity,  and  with  it 
inspiration  and  hope.  .  .  . 

"In  any  college  or  university  which  undertakes  to  present  a  series 
of  graded  courses  in  all  the  common  subjects  of  knowledge,  election  ol 
studies  in  some  measure  by  the  individual  student,  or  selection  for  him, 
is  absolutely  inevitable;  for  no  single  student  can  take  in  three  or  four 
years  more  than  a  small  fraction  of  the  instruction  in  the  liberal  arts 
offered  at  such  an  institution.  But  if  election  by  the  individual  with  the 
natural  aids  works  well  in  practice,  it  is  of  course  to  be  preferred  to  any 
method  of  selection  for  the  individual  by  an  authority  outside  himself,  since 
freemen  are  best  trained  by  practice  in  freedom  with  responsibility.  Now, 
the  experience  of  forty  years  in  a  great  variety  of  American  institutions 
has  proved  that  election  by  the  individual  works  well,  wherever  the  ad- 
ministrative methods  which  should  accompany  such  an  elective  system 
have  been  well  devised  and  well  executed.  Hence,  the  system  is  not  only 
inevitable,  but  in  the  highest  degree  expedient  and  profitable." 

The  necessity  of  selecting  a  few  out  of  the  many  courses  forces 
itself  upon  all  who  face  the  question  in  any  practical  way.  But 
so  obsessed  by  a  lust  for  law-making  are  those  who  maneuver  or 
dictate  faculty  action  in  many  universities,  that  they  seem  unable 
to  rest  upon  the  proper  administrative  safeguards  of  a  genuine 
elective  curriculum.  Feeling  that  they  must  make  sweeping  laws 
of  some  sort,  they  have  frequently  resorted  to  what  is  termed  the 
"group  system/'  By  this  system  a  show  of  freedom  is  made 
which  may  deceive  some  unanalytical  minds.  But  group  systems, 
in  some  cases,  are  more  injurious  than  any  other  form  of  prescrip- 
tion that  would  be  tolerated.  It  is  tolerated  only  because  its  effects 
are  masked  for  inexpert  observers.  It  forces  the  boy  fresh  from 
the  high  school  to  choose  a  certain  set  of  studies  out  of  a  number 
of  similarly  prescribed  sets,  and  confines  his  election  of  courses 
throughout  the  four  years  to  the  group  picked  at  the  start.  To 
the  thoughtless  this  seems  a  free  election,  but  it  really  robs  the 
student  of  his  best  opportunity  to  profit  by  experience  in  college 
life  and  work.  It  substantially  fixes  the  sphere  of  his  studies 
and  his  teachers  at  the  outset,  when  he  knows  least  about  himself 


326  GROUP    SYSTEMS 

and  all  the  subjects  and  teachers  supposed  to  be  made  available 
by  the  college.  If  he  should  come,  through  experience  and  counsel, 
to  desire  to  meet  a  teacher  not  included  in  the  group  of  his  first 
forced  "election,"  or  to  take  up  or  continue  some  subject  not  in 
the  specifications  of  his  group,  it  is  always  difficult  and  often 
impossible  to  satisfy  his  desire  without  extending  his  work  beyond 
four  years.  If  he  can  change  at  all,  he  must  compromise  on 
another  group.  Speaking  of  the  group  system,  President  Eliot 
says :  "To  impose  upon  a  boy  for  several  years  an  ill-fitting  group 
of  studies  from  which  he  can  hardly  extricate  himself,  is  a  much 
more  serious  matter  than  to  allow  him  to  choose  amiss  one  or  two 
studies  which  he  can  easily  replace."  I  do  not  see  how  this  judg- 
ment can  be  candidly  disputed,  and,  as  I  have  suggested,  the 
possibility  of  "an  ill-fitting  group  of  studies"  is  not  the  worst 
feature  of  the  group  system.  Its  most  serious  menace  is  the  prob- 
ability of  an  ill-fitting  group  of  teachers.  The  fresh  matriculate 
may  know  enough  about  subjects  of  study  to  pick  a  group  approxi- 
mately satisfactory  on  the  score  of  its  subjects;  but,  generally,  he 
knows  nothing  at  all  about  the  men  who  are  to  teach  those  and 
other  subjects.  Yet  his  teachers  are  more  important  for  weal  or 
woe  to  the  ordinary  student,  than  any  arrangement  of  subjects. 
The  very  idea  of  personal  and  professional  responsibility  and  com- 
petition appears  to  be  abhorred  by  those  who  devise. the  regulations 
enacted  by  or  in  the  name  of  American  professors.  If  mag- 
nanimity is  not  to  become  extinct  in  the  institutions  which  ought 
to  be  its  chief  nurseries,  prevalent  rules  and  regulations  rendering 
it  impossible  or  difficult  or  dangerous  for  a  student  to  choose  his 
instructors  (especially  in  the  way  of  a  change),  must  be  abolished. 
In  a  genuine  elective  system  no  two  four-years  selections  out 
of  thousands  of  individual  choices  are  identical.  Minds  left  at 
freedom  do  not  fall  into  a  half-dozen  or  a  dozen  artificial  groups. 
A  thousand  other  combinations  would  (admittedly)  be  quite  as 
suitable  as  the  groups  that  are  arbitrarily  devised  by  a  committee 
appointed  by  dean  or  president,  and  adopted  at  a  poorly  attended 


GROUP   SYSTEMS  327 

faculty  meeting.  If  men  who  understand  how  easily  all  desirable 
concentration  and  distribution  would  be  secured  by  a  few  con- 
servative general  regulations  and  the  proper  departmental  require- 
ments, oppose  the  committee  report,  their  resistance  is  unavailing 
under  the  prevalent  organization.  The  characteristic  experience 
lias  been  described,  and  the  true  causes  and  effective  remedies 
riave  been  explained  in  previous  chapters. 

The  group  system  may  be  justified  in  secondary  schools  for 
reasons  that  do  not  apply  to  the  university.  In  the  first  place 
high  school  pupils  really  need  a  prescribed  curriculum,  chiefly 
because  many  parents  would  otherwise  make  choices  far  more 
prejudiced  and  ill-advised  than  any  elections  that  could  be  made, 
after  a  prescribed  high  school  course  of  study,  by  college  students 
under  a  properly  administered  elective  system.  In  the  second 
place,  the  number  of  teachers  and  subjects  in  high  schools  is 
limited  by  economic  and  pedagogical  conditions,  and  several  groups 
may  represent  expedient  alternatives  of  fully  prescribed  curricula. 
Five  or  six  prescribed  groups  may  thus  be  made  out  of  a  dozen 
different  studies  by  omitting  some  and  varying  the  number  of 
years  required  in  other  subjects  in  the  respective  groups.  The 
effect  of  a  wide  variety  is  produced;  parents  prejudiced  against 
this  or  that  subject  as  not  being  "practical"  are  pacified;  and  it 
is  possible  at  the  same  time  to  make  each  group  a  good  prescribed 
course.  None  of  these  conditions  or  considerations  are  rightly 
applicable  in  the  university.  It  is  impossible  to  have  a  college 
or  university  in  any  legitimate  sense,  if  the  intercourse  between 
teachers  and  taught  is  kept  upon  the  plane  of  the  secondary 
school. 

Besides  the  group  system,  another  wretched  device  is  frequently 
adopted  to  compromise  the  elective  system.  The  curriculum  is 
prescribed  for  the  first  two  years,  and  left  elective  for  the  last 
two.  Some  presidents  and  deans  plume  themselves  upon  this 
practice,  in  popular  expositions  of  their  ways  and  works.  Those 
who  understand  know  that  curricula  thus  administered  allow  ad- 


328  ADVANCED  COURSES 

vanced  study  only  in  the  subjects  included  in  the  prescription  for 
the  freshmen  and  sophomore  years.  It  is  plain  that  no  student, 
under  this  plan,  can  pursue  any  other  subject  more  than  two 
years.  This  same  result  follows  from  the  spontaneous  practice 
of  some  departments  in  systems  alleged  to  be  freely  elective.  I 
refer  to  departments  that  refuse  to  admit  freshmen  or  often  even 
sophomore  students  to  their  first  (i.  e.,  most  elementary)  courses. 
The  heads  of  such  departments  sometimes  exhibit  a  fatuous  pride  in 
the  inaccessibility  of  their  departments  to  all  but  "advanced"  stu- 
dents. It  should  be  evident  that  they  make  truly  advanced  work 
in  their  departments  impossible  for  undergraduate  students.  Dur- 
ing the  first  twenty  years  of  the  elective  system  at  Harvard  (until 
1890)  the  departments  of  economics  and  philosophy  refused  to 
admit  freshmen.  "Accordingly,"  says  President  Eliot,  "the  stu- 
dents who  were  attracted  towards  those  subjects  found  themselves 
compelled  to  begin  them  in  the  Sophomore  or  even  in  the  Junior 
year.  Yet  the  advanced  courses  could  not  be  attacked  until  the 
long  elementary  courses  had  been  mastered.  Experience  of  the 
difficulty  of  producing  advanced  students  of  these  subjects  under 
such  conditions  within  the  period  of  college  residence,  finally  led 
the  faculty  to  abandon  its  theory.  ...  By  trial  they  made 
the  encouraging  discovery  that  some  Freshmen  are  more  mature 
than  some  Seniors."  The  college  teacher  who  is  not  aware  of 
the  truth  of  the  words  I  have  underscored,  has  been  blind  to  the 
most  obvious  facts  in  his  experience.  I  do  not  believe  that  any 
department  organized  as  I  have  recommended*  would  ever  show 
this  blindness.  In  the  particular  subjects  named,  academic  prep- 
aration has  the  minimum,  and  native  quality  of  mind  the  maxi- 
mum bearing  upon  true  eligibility.  Some  conspicuous  political 
careers  among  us  should  have  demonstrated  that  economics  may  be 
studied  for  a  great  many  years  without  learning  its  A  B  C's;  and 
philosophy  is  not  likely  to  be  chosen  except  by  a  student  whose 


'See  pp.  247  to  252.  Cf.,  also,  p.  270. 


A    SUGGESTIVE   INSTANCE  329 

interest  in  the  subject  is  ample  justification  for  an  attempt  to  study 
it.  Any  genuine  scholar  in  philosophy  would  rather  teach  pure 
philosophy  to  an  absolutely  illiterate  man  endowed  with  native 
ability  to  think,  than  to  a  master  of  arts  weak  or  blunted  in  his 
intuitive  and  logical  powers.  I  remark,  in  passing,  that  natural 
aptitude  for  the  study  of  philosophy  is  stifled  by  the  quality  and 
mode  of  teaching  that  prevails  at  every  stage  of  our  systematic 
school-teaching.  Perhaps  fifty  per  centum  of  all  children  are 
little  philosophers.  The  latent  aptitude  appears  even  after  ten 
years  of  antagonistic  schooling  if  free  access  is  opened  to  a  gifted 
teacher  of  philosophy.  For  example,  the  young  instructor  whose 
lectures  at  Cornell  used  to  be  attended,  as  I  have  told,  by  so  many 
hearers  receiving  no  "credits"  for  attendance,  to-day,  as  professor 
of  philosophy  in  a  great  state  university,  has  enrolled  in  three 
'stiff'  courses  (logic,  ethics,  history  of  philosophy),  taught  by  him- 
self, one-fourth  of  all  the  undergraduate  students  in  the  college 
of  arts  and  sciences.  In  two  graduate  courses,  also  conducted  by 
him,*  more  than  one-fourth  of  all  graduate  students  are  enrolled. 
If  these  facts  are  paralleled  in  any  other  university  in  America, 
I  do  not  know  of  the  instance;  yet  I  believe  the  experience  cited 
would  be  repeated  anywhere  under  like  conditions.  I  mean  that 
the  causes  are  not  to  be  sought  in  any  exceptional  preparation 
of  the  young  men  who  are  attending  the  university  in  question, 
but  in  the  facts  that  a  deep  and  vital  subject  is  worthily  taught; 
that  credit  for  the  course  is  not  given  to  an  absurdly  large  portion 
of  the  class,  and  is  therefore  truly  creditable;  and  that  no  abusive 
administration  of  "discipline"  ejects  a  student  for  failing  in  two 
or  three  courses  to  win  credits,  although  all  lectures  have  been  at- 
tended and  every  exercise  honestly  attempted.** 


"There  is  a  tendency  (which  should  be  corrected)  in  that  noble  but 
impecunious  university  to  drive  free  horses  to  death.  Both  faculty  and 
students  seem  to  me  to  work  harder  (though  none  more  happily)  than 
anywhere  else. 

**Cf.  p.  329  et  sq. 


330  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM 

In  respect  to  the  elective  system  in  general,  President  Eliot's 
testimony  will  .apply  wherever  the  individual  courses  have  been 
properly  guarded: 

"What  occurs  may  now  be  plainly  seen  by  any  competent  person  who 
will  patiently  examine  the  records  of  the  students'  choices  at  Harvard 
College  during  the  last  thirty-five  years.  Careful  inspection  of  the  records 
will  satisfy  any  candid  mind  that  the  elective  system  does  not  produce 
the  evil  imagined;  but,  on  the  contrary,  results  in  almost  all  cases  in 
consistent  plans  of  individual  study  throughout  the  college  course.  Incon- 
secutive or  aimless  selections  are  hard  to  find.  More  than  twenty  years 
ago,  three  experts,  all  familiar  with  the  relations  and  sequences  of  the 
courses  of  instruction  given  during  the  period  of  1881  to  1885,  carefully 
examined  the  entire  series  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  choices  made  by  the 
students  of  that  time,  being  the  entire  classes  of  1884  and  1885  in  Harvard 
College.  They  endeavored,  independently  of  each  other,  to  pick  out  those 
selections  which,  in  their  judgment,  lacked  coherency  or  consecutiveness. 
These  three  agreed  upon  only  six  cases  of  incoherence — three  in  the  Class 
of  '84,  and  three  in  the  Class  of  '85.  .  .  .  When  three  experts  cannot 
agree  that  a  given  selection  of  studies  lacks  coherency,  it  may  well  be  that 
knowledge  of  the  circumstances  and  conditions  under  which  the  individual 
selection  was  made  would  fully  explain  or  indeed  justify  it.  The  general 
result  of  this  particular  examination  was  that  incoherent  choices  were 
very  few,  and  that  the  intelligence  in  selection  was  nearly  as  great  in 
the  lower  half  of  a  class  as  in  the  upper.  This  verdict  would  stand 
unchanged  today,  except  that  the  recent  gross  exaggeration  of  athletic 
sports  has  added  slightly  to  the  number  of  incoherent  or  wrong-motived 
elections  of  studies." 

I  am  aware  that  there  is  a  quota  of  men  (sometimes  men  and 
women)  in  the  faculty  of  every  state  university  and  every  sectarian 
college,  who,  even  though  they  were  forced  to  admit  the  full  truth 
of  the  facts  stated  by  President  Eliot,  would  still  strive  to  impose 
prohibitions  and  prescriptions  upon  all, — lest  some  football  player 
might  pick  out  "wrong-motived  elections  of  studies."  The 
alternative  of  correcting  directly  "the  recent  gross  exaggeration 
of  athletic  sports,"  on  the  intrinsic  merits  of  that  question,  would 
not  appeal  to  them.  If  any  proper  argument  can  bring  such  char- 


INHERENT   SAFEGUARDS    FOR   FREE   ELECTION  331 

acters  to  moral  sanity,  I  have  never  witnessed  or  heard  of  the  feat. 
If  they  cannot  be  outvoted  in  faculty  meetings  there  is  no  hope 
for  present  remedy.  The  great  trouble  is  that  such  characters  (in 
the  body  politic  as  well  as  in  university  faculties)  act  and  vote 
in  packs,  whereas  the  better  sorts  of  men  are  prone  to  hold  too 
stubbornly  to  minor  differences  in  their  individual  ideas.  It  is 
the  characteristic  fault  of  the  courageous  man  who  is  thoughtless, 
that  he  is  too  ready  to  stand  alone.  As  an  epigrammatic  friend  of 
mine  once  expressed  it :  "True  men  ought  to  stand  together  better 
than  they  do,  because  the  mean  fellows  seem  to  have  signs  and 
passwords." 

Of  course,  no  reader  will  imagine  that  the  fairly  coherent  and 
judicious  choices  made  by  thousands  of  youths  depend  upon  any 
mysterious  wellsprings  of  wisdom.  The  facts  are  a  simple  con- 
sequence of  the  inherent  guidance  given  by  the  logical  needs  of  the 
courses  in  every  department  and  by  the  requirement  of  a  proper 
number  of  advanced  courses  for  a,  degree.  A  valid  sequence  within 
each  department  is  plain.  But  the  student  soon  discovers  that 
advanced  courses  cannot  be  pursued  without  previous  study  in  other 
departments.  He  cannot  go  forward  in  chemistry  without  some 
physics;  he  cannot  go  far  in  either  without  some  German  and 
French.  Nothing  at  all  can  be  done  in  physics  without  mathe- 
matics ;  nothing  in  agriculture  without  botany.  Biology  necessitates 
some  chemistry,  and  so  on.  If  the  courses  in  every  department 
approximate  what  they  ought  to  be,  coherence  and  sufficient  distri- 
bution takes  care  of  itself  for  every  student  who  would  graduate. 
If  a  genuine  elective  system  does  not  work  well  in  such  regards, 
then,  either  intrinsically  weak  and  worthless  courses  are  being 
offered,  or  credits  are  given  for  attendance  instead  of  for  attain- 
ment. The  simple  requirement  that  there  must  be  a  minimum 
number  of  advanced  courses  offered  for  the  degree,  secures  as 
much  concentration  as  need  be  compulsory.  When  degrees  are 
given  with  distinction,  the  requirments  for  distinction  in  each 
field  afford  additional  guides:  thus,  no  college  worthy  the  name 


332       EFFECT  OF  ELECTIVE  SYSTEM  ON  SCHOLARSHIP 

would  confer  a  degree  with  Honors  in  Literature  for  an  election 
including  less  than  a  good  knowledge  of  at  least  two  languages  and 
two  literatures, — of  which  one  should  be  ancient  and  one  modern, 
as  at  Harvard.  Let  the  candidate  offering  less  take  his  degree 
without  distinction  in  literature. 

Much  ink  and  talk  has  been  spilled  over  the  question  of  confer- 
ing  the  same  degree  for  various  undergraduate  courses  of  study. 
I  do  not  deem  the  question  of  sufficient  moment  to  require  more 
than  passing  mention  in  a  study  of  things  deemed  to  be  vitally  im- 
portant. Education  could  be  conducted  very  well  (and  is  so  con- 
ducted in  many  countries)  without  any  degree  corresponding  to 
our  B.  A.'s,  B.  S.'s,  B.  Lit.'s,  B.  Ph.'s,  etc.  I  see  only  a  respectable 
but  misapplied  sentiment  in  objections  to  allowing  A.  B.  to  stand 
for  the  completion  of  any  reputable  undergraduate  college  curric- 
ulum. No  variations  are  demanded  for  the  title  of  the  university 
degree,  Ph.  D.,  where  much  more  definite  distinctions  could  be 
shown,  were  there  any  need.  The  vital  point  is  that  neither  under- 
graduate nor  graduate  degree  be  conferred  for  less  than  truly 
creditable  work  on  the  part  of  the  student  in  every  course  for  which 
he  receives  credit,  and  that  a  strong  and  ample  course  be  offered 
in  every  case  (as  far  as  possible)  on  the  part  of  the  teacher.  An 
aggregate  of  eighteen  such  credits  for  eighteen  such  courses,  under 
the  system  of  free  election  properly  required  by  modern  conditions, 
would  constitute  more  meritorious  ground  for  the  A.  B.  degree 
than  any  schedule  of  courses  in  particular  subjects  that  was  ever 
prescribed. 

The  reader  must  be  referred  to  President  Eliot's  book  for  an 
appreciation  of  the  effect  of  the  elective  system  upon  the  college 
teacher  and  professional  scholarship  in  America.  As  he  says, — 
"The  attention  of  faculties  and  the  public  has  been  too  often  con- 
centrated on  the  effects  of  the  elective  system  on  young  students; 
whereas  its  effects  on  teachers,  and  on  the  development  of  real 
scholarship  throughout  the  country  ought  to  have  received  more 


PROPER  PROTECTION  OF  COURSES  333 

attention,  for  it  is  there  that  its  effects  have  been  the  most  benef- 
icent." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  explain  that  the  proper  sphere  for  the 
elective  system  is  limited  to  the  college  of  arts  and  sciences — the 
"philosophical  faculty,"  as  it  is  called  in  Europe.  In  the  profes- 
sional schools,  curricula  are  necessarily  prescribed.  Freedom  for 
specialization  is  even  there  allowable  in  undergraduate  studies  to  a 
small  extent ;  but  the  very  nature  of  the  work  requires  that  curric- 
ula leading  to  first  degrees  in  law,  medicine,  engineering,  etc., 
be  prescribed  in  the  main.  Specialization  within  these  professions 
must  follow  a  common  professional  foundation. 

Mistaken  Devices 

The  main  principle  for  general  administration  in  the  matter 
of  the  teaching  work  performed  by  the  philosophical  faculty  of 
a  university,  is  reliance  on  the  maintenance  of  a  proper  self-pro- 
tection by  each  course  of  instruction.  The  proper  self-protection 
for  any  course  consists  in  (1)  only  logical  prerequisites  for  ad- 
mission, and  (2)  the  requirement  of  genuine  comprehension  of  the 
subject-matter  of  the  course  as  the  condition  for  crediting  it  in  a 
student's  record.  It  appears  plainly  to  me  that  "what  is  more  than 
these  cometh  of  evil."  Such  self-defense  is,  also,  the  only  sub- 
stantial protection  of  students  against  waste  of  time  and  deteriora- 
tion of  character,  and  the  only  secure  basis  for  intrinsically  good 
and  vigorous  courses. 

A  great  variety  of  infractions  of  the  principles  I  have  just  stated 
might  be  cited.  The  illogical  requirement  "open  only  to  juniors  and 
seniors,"  has  been  discussed.*  The  most  widespread  and  deepest 
evils  result  from  the  arbitrary  administrative  interference  in  many 
colleges  and  universities,  whereby  a  student  is  expelled**  if  he 
fails  to  receive  credit  in  more  than  half  of  his  courses.  Anv  such 


'Page  328. 

r*The  word  "expelled"  is  not  used,  but  he  is  cast  out. 


334  MISTAKEN   DEVICES 

regulation  inevitably  debases  the  spirit  and  plane  of  teaching  in  the 
majority  of  the  courses.  If  a  student  attends  all  lectures  and  hon- 
estly attempts  all  assigned  exercises,  failure  to  master  the  course  is 
not  a  proper  subject  for  discipline.  To  treat  it  as  such  almost  jus- 
tifies the  usual  consequent  practice  on  the  part  of  instructors,  by 
which  credit  for  a  course  conies  to  mean  the  minimum  for  toleration 
in  residence.  The  effects  are  shameful  and  injurious  at  all  stages, 
but  they  are  pitiable  for  freshmen.  It  is  upon  the  freshman  that 
many  abuses  of  the  law-making  power  bear  most  heavily.  He 
usually  takes  five  courses.  If  he  fails  to  make  two  or  three,  he  may 
be  expelled.  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  he  evidently  deserves  no 
such  treatment.  It  is  creditable  to  human  nature  that  foolish 
laws  are  commonly  evaded  in  favor  of  concrete  justice.  The  fresh- 
man on  'the  ragged  edge'  tells  his  instructor  that  he  is  failing 
in  another  course;  the  instructor  must  decide  the  concrete  issue — 
expel  the  youth,  or  credit  him  with  the  course.  Under  a  genuine 
standard  for  credits,  sensible  men  would  expect  nearly  the  extent 
of  failure  by  first-year  students  that  the  laws  of  some  universities 
make  a  ground  for  ejection.  If  the  student,  through  his  first 
year's  experience  learns  how  to  work  effectively  on  his  own  respon- 
sibility he  has  done  well.  Many  a  freshman  is  ill-prepared,  although 
graduated  from  the  most  over-regulated  of  affiliated  schools.  He 
may  fail  for  the  first  term  before  he  has  at  all  'found  himself/ 
Such  a  failure  in  all  courses  should  put  him  on  probation,  but 
need  be  no  indication  that  he  should  be  cast  out.  He  may  pass  in 
several  courses  and  the  marks  for  several  others  may  be  so  low 
that  he  cannot  hope  to  lift  them  to  the  passing  average  by  less 
than  perfection  during  the  next  term.  If  he  seeks  the  Dean's  coun- 
sel,— what  do  we  do?  They  come  to  us  for  bread  and  we  give 
them  stones;  they  ask  for  an  egg  and  we  give  them  a  scorpion. 
In  the  numerous  universities  where  such  laws  govern,  crowds  of 
students,  especially  first-year  men  during  and  at  the  end  of  the 
first  term,  are  dropped  from  courses  solely  because  of  marks 


"DROPPING"  335 

received.  If  the  number  of  courses  retained  be  insufficient  or  on  the 
danger  line  under  the  rule,  the  Dean  helps  them  to  shuffle  into  such 
fractional  courses  as  may  be  offered  and  open  to  them  under 
"group"  and  other  regulations.  At  the  same  time,  all  such  institu- 
tions commonly  prohibit  the  student  (even  a  senior)  from  dropping 
a  course  at  his  own  option  for  valid  reasons,  such  as  the  discovery 
that  it  is  net  at  all  what  he  wanted,  or  that  it  is  weak  and  empty, 
or  that  personal  antagonism  has  developed  between  student  and 
teacher. 

Of  course,  in  some  cases  it  may  be  expedient  for  a  student  to 
drop,  for  the  remainder  of  the  year,  a  course  in  which  he  is  not 
passing.  But  this  will  be  the  case  for  a  freshman  student  (if  the 
course  was  intrinsically  desirable  for  him),  only  when  the  number 
of  his  class  hours  is  too  large  for  his  ability, — and  in  such  a  case 
there  should  be  no  shuffle  to  a  substitute  course.  Where  the  first 
course  in  a  department  is  taught  in  three  or  more  sections,  one  of 
the  sections  might  well  begin  over  again  at  the  end  of  the  first  term 
for  the  benefit  of  students  who  fail  to  'catch  on'  and  *hit  the  pace* 
promptly.  That  predicament  will  probably  obtain  for  at  least 
one-third  of  the  class,  if  the  course  is  approximately  what  it  ought 
to  be.  Differences  in  native  ability,  in  preparation,  in  versatility 
for  adaptation  to  new  environments,  in  accidental  circumstances 
of  getting  settled  or  of  first  associations,  and  in  various  other 
conditions,  make  the  start  of  freshmen  very  uneven.  I  conceive  no 
reason  why  college  faculties  legislate  with  such  apparent  ignorance 
or  disregard  of  palpable  facts,  except  that  the  form  of  organization 
and  administrative  practices  I  have  criticized  conspire  to  stifle  the 
counsels  of  the  best  men  in  the  faculties,  and  cause  natural  leaders 
to  be  unheeded. 

In  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  the  rational  and  morally  sound  advice 
to  the  young  student  who  is  failing  to  win  passing  marks  would  be : 
"Stick  to  it.  To  fail  is  no  shame;  only  to  fail  to  do  your  best  is 
disgraceful.  Failure  in  a  first  attempt,  should  teach  you  how  to 


336  NEGLECT   OF   WEIGHTIER   MATTERS 

succeed ;  and  that  is  a  great  lesson.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  under- 
taking was  a  proper  one,  to  give  it  up  at  a  first  failure  leads  to  the 
most  weakening  habit  you  could  fall  into.  If  you  fail  in  a  course 
this  year,  do  not  accept  permanent  defeat.  Take  it  over  again, 
until  you  have  mastered  it.  There  is  no  other  way  to  become  a 
strong  man."  This  is  the  morality  and  life-disipline  approved  by 
the  conscience  and  experience  of  mankind.  Yet  the  very  opposite 
is  taught  by  precept  and  by  practice  in  many  state  universities. 
Those  who  should  be  guardians  of  a  bright  flame  of  inner  truth 
and  fortitude,  are  turning  the  eyes  and  hearts  of  youth  to  external 
measures  of  success:  If  the  light  that  is  in  thee  be  darkness,  how 
great  is  the  darkness?  "You  must  win  the  umpire's  score,"  they 
say,  "twist  and  turn,  but  procure  the  mark."  Is  there  any  reason 
to  wonder  why  it  is  hard  for  such  colleges  to  prevent  scandalous 
breaches  of  good  faith  on  athletic  fields;  or  that  young  men  who 
might  have  been  turned  to  honor  and  to  the  true  joy  of  honorable 
sport,  exult  if  they  get  the  winning  score  no  matter  how  ? 

The  persons  who  have  brought  many  of  our  institutions  of  higher 
education  to  such  a  pass,  are  very  loud  and  pugnacious  about  what 
they  call  morality.  In  every  sphere  they  seek  to  impose  their 
opinions  by  force.  They  usually  dominate  the  college  Y.  M.  C. 
A/s,  heeding  little  or  naught  the  principles  of  Him  whose  name 
they  invoke.  They  talk  as  if  a  glass  of  beer  led  to  perdition, 
and  denounce  penalties  as  fierce  as  they  dare  -to  inflict  for 
every  infringement  of  their  negative  ideas  of  virtue.  The 
weightier  positive  matters  of  justice,  mercy,  and  truth,  temperance, 
and  courage,  they  ignore;  they  "strain  out  the  gnat,  and  swallow 
the  camel."  If  either  scholarship  or  manly  character  is  to  survive 
in  institutions  where  such  persons  have  had  free  swing,  the  time 
has  come  when  there  must  be  poured  out  upon  them  vials  of  such 
scorn  as  was  poured  upon  those  other  "blind  guides,"  who  in  their 
day  and  generation  did  their  works  to  be  seen  of  men,  and  made 
broad  their  phylacteries,  and  loved  the  chief  seats  in  the  synagogues, 


MISTAKEN   DEVICES  337 

and  the  salutations  in  the  market  places,  and  to  be  called  of  men, 
Doctor. 

As  I  have  said,  the  theory  which  lowers  the  credit  for  a  course 
of  instruction  to  the  minimum  of  tolerance  for  residence  (and 
thereby  tends  to  lower  the  courses  to  emptiness  or  to  "easy  things 
to  understand") — bears  heaviest  on  the  freshmen.  The  burdens  put 
upon  their  shoulders  are,  verily,  grievous  to  be  borne.  It  is  only 
by  incessant  compromising  and  evading  of  ostensible  standards 
and  explicit  laws,  that  this  theory  leaves  many  freshmen  survi- 
vors. In  practice,  the  first-year  men  are  driven  to  exertions  which 
are  often  frantic  and  commonly  exceed  the  effort  required  in  any 
succeeding  year.  Where  administration  of  the  character  referred 
to  has  accomplished  its  perfect  work,  the  habit  of  offering  easily 
passed  courses  has  spread  to  the  advanced  courses;  and  the  lesson 
freshmen  (and  freshmaids)  retain  most  vividly  to  their  senior 
year,  is  the  efficacy  of  'cry-baby  acts'  when  marks  sink  to  the  danger 
line.  In  the  typical  case,  accordingly,  freshmen  toil  and  moil, 
sophomores  ease  up  a  bit,  juniors  get  gay,  and  seniors  walk  at 
leisure. 

I  am  reminded  of  the  school  in  the  sea  attended  by  the  Mock 
Turtle  and  the  Gryphon: 

"And  how  many  hours  a  day  did  you  do  lessons?"  said  Alice. 

"Ten  hours  the  first  day,"  said  the  Mock  Turtle,  "nine  the  next,  and 
so  on." 

"What  a  curious  plan!"  exclaimed  Alice. 

"That's  the  reason  they're  called  lessons,"  the  Gryphon  remarked:  "be- 
cause they  lessen  from  day  today." 

This  was  quite  a  new  idea  to  Alice,  and  she  thought  it  over  a  little 
before  she  made  her  next  remark.  "Then  the  eleventh  day  must  have 
been  a  holiday?" 

"Of  course  it  was,"  said  the  Mock  Turtle. 

"And  how  did  you  manage  on  the  twelfth?"  Alice   went  on  eagerly. 

"That's  enough  about  lessons,"  the  Gryphon  interrupted  in  a  very  de- 
cided tone;  "tell  her  something  about  the  games  now." 


338  WONDERLAND 

This  similitude  from  Wonderland  is  not  fortuitous.  If  there 
were  gods  who  did  "smile  in  secret"  as  they  "lie  beside  their  nectar" 
beholding  what  befalls  "far  below  them  in  the  valleys,"  what 
laughter  would  have  filled  the  dome  of  Olympus  when  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  stolidly  handed  Gulliver's  Travels  and,  again,  Alice  in  Won- 
derland to  his  babes  and  sucklings !  They  never  touched  him. 
The  most  blistering  satire  that  was  ever  penned  with  the  gall  and 
bitterness  of  an  indignant  soul,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  most  delicate  shafts  of  raillery  that  ever  a  kindly  spirit 
aimed  at  a  people's  follies,  have  been  received  by  the  English- 
speaking  peoples  without  general  perception  of  the  purport  of 
either.  Both  John  Bull  and  Jonathan  did,  indeed,  see  that  Dean 
Swift  and  Professor  Dodgson  had  each  written  something  to  be 
noticed;  but  self-complacency  or  lack  of  humor  proved  impenetra- 
ble. So  they  printed  both  books  by  hundreds  of  thousands  (some 
too  bitter  words  of  the  Dean's  and  some  embarrassing  queries  of 
the  Professor's  being  cut  out)  in  the  dress  of  nursery  manuals ;  and 
these  please  our  children,  "like  a  tale  of  little  meaning  tho'  the 
words  are  strong."  They  are,  verily,  excellent  reading  for  children 
— "hoher  Sinn  liegt  oft  in  Tcindschem  Spiel,"  but  it  is  a  pity  that 
the  grownups  have  left  such  shrewd  views  of  their  own  mistakes 
and  inconsistencies  for  the  exclusive  relish  and  profit  of  children. 
Let  the  little  philosophers  laugh  and  wag  their  heads  over  half- 
caught  significances  in  Alice's  adventures ;  but  it  were  well  if  their 
elders  would  consider  the  kindly  quizzing  with  more  discrimina- 
tion and  some  intro-spection. 

If  I  could  obtain  effective  influence  with  a  professor  of  pedagogy, 
or  with  a  professor  of  the  art  of  education,  or  with  a  professor  of 
the  science  of  education,  or  with  a  professor  of  the  art  and  science 
of  education,  I  would  induce  him  to  offer  a  course  in  which  the 
class  would  read  Alice  in  Wonderland  looking  for  the  points.  Mean- 
while I  commend  to  students  in  American  universities  a  perusal  of 
the  book.  Wits  will  differ  about  particulars  of  the  allegory;  but 
if  they  merely  read  cursorily  with  the  perception  that  the  puzzled 


WONDERLAND  339 

and  inquisitive  Alice  is  the  perplexed  and  inquiring  Public,  and 
that  some  of  the  wonders  encountered  in  her  explorations  are  the 
doings  of  various  parties  to  our  Educational  System, — some  bright 
glimpses  will  surely  appear.  For  an  experienced  and  reflective 
reader,  with  suitable  mental  endowments,  the  entire  quizzical  al- 
legory would  render  up  its  intended  effect.  Not  everything  is  to  be 
interpreted:  much  is  atmosphere  and  niiance,  more  is  medium; 
but  all  is  benign,  and  the  intended  result  will  be  realized  in  the 
way  you  feel  about  many  processes  that  have  been  adopted  as 
educational  and  about  the  ensuing  attitudes  and  reactions  of  naive 
good  sense.  For  instance  (opening  at  random)  : 

"Everybody  says  'come  on!'  here,"  thought  Alice,  as  she  went  slowly 
after  it:  "I  never  was  so  ordered  about  before  in  all  my  life,  never!" 

Considering  who  and  where  Alice  is,  perhaps  some  sympathy 
with  a  long-suffering  public  may  awake  in  you.  Or  (choosing 
something  fairly  definite),  surely  the  Caucus  Race  has  a  bearing 
on  the  theory,  prevailing  in  many  regions  of  our  wonderland,  that 
every  student  ought  to  win  credit  for  every  course  he  takes  at  his 
first  attempt,  and  that  courses  are  not  to  be  thought  of  which  have 
not  been  adapted  to  the  'prizes  for  all'  theory.  Is  it  sensible  to 
assume  that  every  course  of  instruction  should  be  within  the  mas- 
tery of  every  student  who  attends  regularly  and  gives  to  it  one- 
fifth  of  his  time ;  or  to  hold  that  the  Professor  ought  not  to  tolerate 
in  his  presence  a  dutiful  student  who  is  failing  to  master  the  sub- 
ject-matter sufficiently  to  merit  credit  for  the  entire  course,  and 
that  the  Dean  ought  to  expell  such  a  student  thus  failing  in  half 
of  his  work?  Maybe  so;  but  if  so,  the  Dodo  was  intelligent  in 
inventing  and  deciding  the  Caucus  Race,  and  Alice  was  silly  to 
wonder  at  its  prizes: 

''What  I  was  going  to  say,"  said  the  Dodo  in  an  offended  tone,  "was, 
that  the  best  thing  to  get  us  dry  would  be  a  Caucus-race." 

"What  is  a  Caucus-race?"  said  Alice;  not  that  she  much  wanted  to 
know,  but  the  Dodo  had  paused  as  if  it  thought  that  somebody  ought  to 
speak,  and  no  one  else  seemed  inclined  to  say  anything. 


340  PRIZES   FOR   ALL 

"Why,"  said  the  Dodo,  "the  best  way  to  explain  it  is  to  do  it." 
First  it  marked  out  a  race -course,  in  a  sort  of  circle  ("the  exact  shape 
doesn't  matter,"  it  said),  and  then  all  the  party  were  placed  along  the 
course,  here  and  there.  There  was  no  "one,  two,  three  and  away,"  but  they 
began  running  when  they  liked,  and  left  off  when  they  liked,  so  that  it  was 
not  easy  to  know  when  the  race  was  over.  However,  when  they  had  been 
running  half-an-hour  or  so,  and  were  quite  dry  again,  the  Dodo  suddenly 
called  out,  "The  race  is  over!"  and  they  all  crowded  'round  it,  panting, 
and  asking,  "But  who  has  won?" 

This  question  the  Dodo  could  not  answer  without  a  great  deal  of 
thought,  and  it  sat  for  a  long  time  with  one  finger  pressed  upon  its  fore- 
head (the  position  in  which  you  usually  see  Shakespeare,  in  the  pictures 
of  him),  while  the  rest  waited  in  silence.  At  last  the  Dodo  said,  "Every- 
body has  won,  and  all  must  have  prizes." 

"But  who  is  to  give  the  prizes?"  quite  a  chorus  of  voices  asked. 
"Why,  she,  of  course,"  said  the  Dodo,  pointing  to  Alice  with  one  finger; 
and  the  whole  party  at  once  crowded  'round  her,  calling  out  in  a  confused 
way,  "Prizes!    Prizes!" 

Alice  had  no  idea  what  to  do,  and  in  despair  she  put  her  hand  in  her 
pocket,  and  pulled  out  a  box  of  comfits,  and  handed  them  'round  as 
prizes.  There  was  exactly  one  apiece,  all  'round. 

"But  she  must  have  a  prize  herself,  you  know,"  said  the  Mouse. 
"Of  course,"  the  Dodo  replied  very  gravely. 

"What  else  have  you  got  in  your  pocket?"  he  went  on,  turning  to  Alice. 
"Only  a  thimble,"  said  Alice  sadly. 
"Hand  it  over  here,"  said  the  Dodo. 

Then  they  all  crowded  'round  her  once  more,  while  the  Dodo  solemnly 
presented  the  thimble,  saying,  "We  beg  your  acceptance  of  this  elegant 
thimble";  and,  when  it  had  finished  this  short  speech,  they  all  cheered. 
Alice  thought  the  whole  thing  very  absurd,  but  they  all  looked  so 
grave  that  she  did  not  dare  to  laugh,  and  as  she  could  not  think  of  any- 
thing to  say,  she  simply  bowed,  and  took  the  thimble,  looking  as  solemn 
as  she  could. 

The  next  thing  was  to  eat  the  comfits;  this  caused  some  noise  and 
confusion,  as  the  large  birds  complained  that  they  could  not  taste  theirs, 
and  the  small  ones  choked  and  had  to  be  patted  on  the  back. 

It  may  be  probable  that  Professor  Dodgson  had  in  mind  the 
elective  system  in  describing  the  shape  of  the  track  for  the  Caucus 


PRIZES   FOR   ALL  341 

Race  and  its  lack  of  the  "one-two-three"  start  and  straight-away 
of  a  prescribed  curriculum;  but  the  main  subject  for  frank  con- 
templation is  the  idea  prizes  for  all.  Dodgson  may  have  so  mis- 
understood the  elective  system  that  he  imagined  it  conduced  to 
prizes  (degrees)  for  everybody;  but  there  is  no  reason  why  elected 
courses  should  be  credited  more  loosely  than  prescribed  courses, 
and,  as  has  been  clearly  shown,  there  may  be  effective  constraints  to 
coherent  elections.  The  fact  is,  a  genuine  elective  system  arouses 
or  reinforces  every  tendency  to  eschew  perfunctory  crediting.  It 
is  evidently  easier  to  deny  credit,  if  need  be,  for  a  freely  chosen 
course,  than  for  a  course  the  student  was  compelled  to  take;  also, 
students  will  exert  themselves  more  in  order  to  make  good  their 
own  choice,  than  they  would  if  they  were  in  a  position  to  make  the 
excuse  of  having  been  forced  to  distasteful  work.  The  whole  is 
made  up  of  its  parts,  and  a  degree  is  simply  the  aggregation  of 
credits  for,  say,  twenty  courses.  If  each  course  is  strong  and  cred- 
ited only  for  approximate  mastery,  the  degree  will  take  care  of  itself 
as  an  honorable  and  significant  prize.  All  good  races  need  not  be 
run  over  one  and  the  same  track.  On  the  contrary,  if  it  be  deemed 
a  reasonable  aim  (while  making  present  allowance  for  evasion) 
that  all  who  are  permitted  to  hear  a  course  should  be  winning  full 
credit  for  it,  then  it  is  a  practically  necessary  consequence  that 
the  degree  approaches,  pari  passu  as  that  aim  is  approximated, 
the  character  of  a  mere  certificate  of  residence.  The  degrees  of  a 
college  thus  administered  are  very  like  the  prizes  of  the  Caucus 
Race. 

If  the  preceding  argument  be  candidly  resisted,  I  believe  it  will 
be  found  that  the  resistance  is  based  upon  a  tacit  assumption  that 
preparation  may  be  made  so  nearly  equivalent  for  all  students 
that  the  ability  of  all  to  master  any  new  undertaking  will  become 
nearly  equal.  Nothing  of  the  sort  is  possible  except  for  a  group 
of  picked  men — picked  by  processes  of  elimination  infinitely  more 
severe  than  could  be  considered  in  this  matter.  Practically,  there 
is  a  double  fallacy  in  the  assumption:  (1)  preparation  can  never 


342  SCAPEGOATS 

become  so  nearly  equivalent  for  college  students,  and  (2)  if  their 
preparation  were  supposed  to  be  (by  some  magic)  identical,  still 
every  new  undertaking  would  bring  out  wide  differences.  Native 
ability,  application,  interest,  extraneous  circumstances,  must  cause 
differences  nowise  properly  subject  to  disciplinary  measures,  which 
nevertheless  would  cause  many  to  fall  short  of  fairly  mastering 
courses  that  required  the  mental  attitude  and  activity  which  must 
distinguish  the  college  student  from  the  high  school  pupil  if  any 
proper  advance  is  made  beyond  the  stage  of  secondary  schools. 
The  only  way  to  fit  courses  of  instruction  to  the  theory  and 
practice  I  have  exposed  is  to  give  courses  not  fit  to  be  offered. 

How  is  it  possible  continually  to  pass  off  any  intellectual  per- 
formance as  a  creditable  distinction,  if  you  make  failure  to  achieve 
it  a  ground  of  suspicion  and  censure  ?  I  say  censure,  not  disgrace, 
because  some  state  universities  in  this  nation  have  put  it  beyond 
their  power  to  disgrace  a  man.  If  professors  refuse  to  let  respectful 
students  listen  to  them,  and  faculties  eject  for  mere  failure  to 
pass,  expulsion  from  such  a  university  is  no  more  a  disgrace  than 
its  degree  is  a  distinction.  There  are  States  in  which  no  more 
is  thought  of  a  young  man's  being  sent  home  from  the  University 
than  of  a  boy's  exclusion  from  a  boarding  school;  and  the  public 
opinion  in  the  matter  is  correct.  Moreover,  laws  of  this  sort  are 
never  squarely  executed.  There  is  no  escape  from  the  dilemma. 
If  the  rules  of  some  catalogs  were  honestly  carried  out  the  institu- 
tions would  forthwith  be  emptied  of  a  third  part  of  their  boasted 
enrollments.  Ugly  details  need  not  be  depicted:  the  reader  may 
imagine  how  students  and  instructors  and  deans  twist  and  squirm 
to  evade  the  expulsion  ("dropping")  alleged  to  be  consequent  upon 
a  student's  failure  to  pass  in  half  of  his  work.  Under  such  a 
regime,  those  who  are  cast  out  are  mere  scapegoats. 

American  universities  are  approaching,  or  have  arrived  at,  a 
fateful  dividing  of  ways.  They  must  decide  and  decide  quickly. 
Will  they  proceed  on  the  theory  that  every  young  man  properly 


PARTING   WAYS  343 

graduated  from  a  college-regulated  high  school  should  (on  pain  of 
ejection)  by  average  application  and  docile  obedience  to  rules  re- 
ceive a  titled  degree  in  four  years;  or,  will  they  decide  that  their 
degrees  shall  have  a  different  meaning?  They  may  choose  as  they 
please,  but,  having  chosen,  it  is  fatuous  to  nurse  the  delusion  that 
either  the  public  or  their  students  can  be  permanently  hoodwinked. 
Graduation  from  the  high  school  means  nothing  individually  for 
the  very  reason  that  common  dilligence  and  docility  secure  the  issue. 
The  class  graduates.  The  high  school  method  is  not  unsuitable 
for  its  stage;  but  if  a  "university"  tries  to  lure  its  thousands  upon 
any  such  terms,  it  must  ultimately  come  to  be  known  for  what  it  so 
chooses  to  be — a  preposterous  high-high  school,  a  retarder  of  natural 
growth  to  manhood  and  to  manhood's  responsibilities.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  university  might  say :  We  offer  courses  of  instruction 
which  may  be  profitably  attended  without  reaching  the  standard 
upon  which  we  certify  a  fair  mastery  of  the  subject-matter  of  a 
course;  it  should  not  be  assumed  that  every  dutiful  student  will 
win  on  schedule  time  the  title  of  our  degree;  our  degree  signifies 
a  genuine,  substantial  distinction  that  may  be  relied  upon  as  a 
certificate  of  the  ability  and  achievement  for  which  it  vouches. 
The  titled  graduates  of  such  a  university  would  not  write  letters 
that  should  shame  a  school  boy, — such  as  are  from  time  to  time 
published  by  investigators  in  illustration  of  existing  conditions, 
and  are  familiar  to  everyone  who  receives  many  letters  from  college 
graduates.  The  grammatical  errors  of  many  typical  letters  are 
their  least  censurable  feature,  and  lack  of  logical  and  conventional 
arrangement  is  not  their  worst  deficiency.  The  gross  misuse  of 
words  and  the  inconsequent  thought  exposed  in  such  letters,  man- 
ifest deficiencies  and  incapacity  that  ought  never  to  pass  muster 
in  any  course  on  any  subject  in  a  university.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  degrees  of  some  institutions  of  large  size  and  rich  resources  are 
coming  to  have  no  creditable  signification.  An  individual  holder 
of  such  a  degree  may  have  the  attainments  it  purports  to  certify, 


344  STRONGER   COURSES 

but  many  others  offer  the  same  certification  who  have  never  done 
anything  that  would  have  earned  credit  for  one  course,  much  less 
twenty  courses,  in  more  honestly  and  more  skillfully  administered 
universities. 

The  fundamental  need  for  improved  administration  of  the  cur- 
riculum is  stronger  courses,  and  the  main  obstacles  to  the  strength- 
ening of  courses  are  such  rules  and  regulations  as  have  been  ex- 
posed in  this  chapter.  In  advising  stronger  courses  I  refer  to  all 
courses  that  should  be  credited  toward  degrees.  Under  existing 
administration  all  courses  offered  are  so  credited,  and  it  is  alleged 
by  most  college  presidents  and  deans  (I  believe  libellously)  that 
students  will  listen  to  nothing  for  which  credit  toward  degrees  is 
not  given.  It  was  not  so  in  my  day,  and  the  change  is  probably 
more  in  the  men  who  constitute  the  faculties,  or  in  the  rulers 
thereof,  than  in  the  young  men.  Deans  and  course  committees 
would  be  saved  some  woeful  perplexities  in  these  days,  if  some  of 
the  courses  now  credited  toward  degrees  were  offerd  merely  as  help- 
full  diversions  interesting  to  some  individuals.  If  not  attended 
on  such  terms,  such  courses  ought  not  to  be  offered  at  all.  I  be- 
lieve they  would  be  attended  by  those  who  should  attend  them,  if 
they  were  really  worth  attending.  For  instance,  if  it  be  deemed 
serviceable  to  offer  information  about  the  boy-scout  "movement" 
(which  appears  to  be  a  coming  favorite  in  state  universities),  let 
a  few  lectures  on  the  subject  be  offered  without  setting  the  bait 
and  temptation  of  a  credit  toward  degrees, — and  without  stretch- 
ing them  out  through  a  whole  year.  So  many  courses  of  this  sort 
have  crept  into  the  curricula  of  state  universities  within  the  last 
few  years  that  their  degrees  need  heavy  discounting  in  many  cases, 
and,  what  is  worse,  a  deplorable  demoralization  has  set  in, — al- 
though I  do  not  believe  it  has  reached  the  depth  alleged  by  those 
who  assert  that  students  would  no  longer  give  heed  to  anything 
without  credit  marks  for  it  in  the  registrar's  office.  If  the  accu- 
sation be  true,  it  but  adds  a  most  urgent  reason  for  instituting 
without  delay  the  reform  I  have  counseled. 


STRONGER   COURSES  345 

I  believe  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  number  of  desir- 
able students  would  be  diminished,  if  the  lure  of  prizes  for  all 
(who  will  be  good)  were  not  held  out.  If  the  true  conditions 
were  generally  comprehended,  the  most  important  part  of  the 
public  would  not  desire  any  such  machine  methods  or  results  in 
the  sphere  of  higher  education.  The  characters  of  teachers  and 
students  and  the  quality  of  their  work  would  surely  be  improved, 
and  I  believe  the  number  of  suitable  students  would  be  increased, 
if  colleges  ceased  to  treat  failure  to  win  credit  for  a  course  as  if 
it  implied  either  some  disreputable  fault  or  sad  misfortune.  Give 
congratulations  for  winning  the  credit ;  say  nothing  about  failure, 
if  attendance  and  exercises  have  been  regular  except  to  speak  some 
word  of  encouragement  or  helpful  criticism .  There  is  no  need  to 
fear  that  students  would  often  continue  indefinitely,  mastering 
nothing.  Not  many  students  are  going  to  spend  time  and  money 
unless  they  get  something  they  suppose  will  be  worth  while.  At 
the  least,  the  truly  disqualified  would  eliminate  themselves  from 
stronger  courses  far  more  effectively,  than  deans  eliminate  them 
from  cheapened  courses  by  "dropping"  a  few  scapegoats.  Failure 
per  se  is  not  a  proper  subject  for  disciplinary  regulations  in  a  uni- 
versity. If  any  instructor  does  not  know  how  to  teach  unless  all 
his  hearers  are  mastering  the  entire  course,  drop  him  at  the  end 
of  his  engagement  unless  his  abilities  for  some  needed  research 
warrant  assigning  him  to  work  of  that  kind. 

If  the  issue  thus  raised  is  to  be  comprehended,  it  must  not  be 
confused  with  the  altogether  separate  question  of  discipline  for 
neglect  of  duties.  Disciplinary  rules  dealing  with  legitimate  sub- 
jects are,  indeed,  frequently  injudicious — puerile,  too  arbitrary, 
too  numerous;  but  that  is  a  question  totally  apart  from  the  mat- 
ter here  considered.  At  every  point  I  have  made  the  proviso,  if 
attendance  and  exercises  have  been  regular.  In  discussions  of 
this  matter  with  members  of  university  faculties,  it  has  some- 
times seemed  to  be  impossible  for  my  interlocutors  to  make  the 
distinction  absolutely  necessary  for  understanding  what  the  ques- 


346  IRRELEVANT   OBJECTIONS 

tion  was.  In  spite  of  the  most  explicit  statement  to  the  contrary, 
many  have  appeared  to  fancy  that  license  to  cut  lectures  and 
neglect  exercises  was  advocated  by  the  critic  of  their  rules  and 
practice.  I  have  more  than  once  been  oppressed  by  a  feeling  of 
almost  despairing  pity  for  society,  in  view  of  the  sheer  intellectual 
impotence  to  comprehend  the  terms  of  a  logical  alternative  (aside 
from  the  question  of  wise  choice)  manifested  by  some  of  the 
mature  men  called  to  be  intellectual  guides  for  the  young  men 
of  the  nation.  The  subject  matter  of  the  question  being  familar 
to  them,  if  honesty  in  argument  be  assumed,  the  tenor  of  their 
arguments  in  private  discussions  and  in  printed  essays,  exposes  an 
abnormal  weakness  of  mind.  If  such  a  degree  of  infirmity  of 
reason  be  incredible,  the  assumed  honesty  must  be  denied.  I  hope 
and  believe  that  even  non-professional  readers  will  generally  be 
able  to  see  that  the  matter  here  submitted  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  totally  different  question  of  how  idle  and  delinquent  students 
should  be  dealt  with.  One  may  differ  from  me  on  the  other 
grounds,  and  I  will  patiently  reinforce  my  arguments,  but  if  one 
differs  by  alleging  that  I  propose  to  do  away  with  all  restraint 
against  idling,  there  is  nothing  to  say  except  that  such  an  allega- 
tion is  foolish  if  candid,  and  at  all  events  untrue. 

The  astonishing  irrelevancy  of  many  alleged  arguments  in  be- 
half of  the  theory  that  a  student  who  is  not  winning  passing  marks 
in  a  course  should  not  be  allowed  to  attend  it,  and  if  he  is  failing 
to  win  credit  in  half  of  his  courses  ought  to  be  ejected  from  the 
university,  will  excuse  the  superfluity  of  a.  particular  illustration, 
in  case  it  may  assist  some  readers.  Suppose  a  freshman  student 
is  carrying  five  courses  including  Latin,  French,  and  German,  and 
that  these  subjects  are  needed  in  a  proper  preparation  for  his  in- 
tended life  work.  Suppose  he  has  been  perfectly  regular  in  at- 
tendance, and  diligent  in  effort  for  every  exercise.  One  of  the 
secrets  of  the  educational  efficacy  of  work  in  a  foreign  language  is 
the  fact  that  lack  of  accuracy  is  exposed  relentlessly.  In  litera- 
ture, history,  economics,  etc.,  a  student  may  be  vague  and  yet  pass 


ACCURACY  347 

muster.  In  writing  a  foreign  language  inaccuracy  will  cause  hun- 
dreds of  definite  errors.  Each  stands  out.  It  cannot  hide.  It  is 
a  fault  of  commission.  There  is  no  room  for  uncertainty  or  hesi- 
tation about  estimating  the  gravity  of  faults  of  omission.  Now 
suppose  the  student  has  some  genuine  talents  which  have  carried 
him  along  swimmingly  until  he  is  confronted  with  the  sterner 
demands  befitting  his  increased  age.  It  is  true  that  the  elemen- 
tary school  and  high  school  ought  to  have  thought  more  of  quality 
and  less  of  quantity  in  their  share  of  his  schooling;  but  it  may  at 
least  be  said  that  the  universities  do  not  encourage  them  to  do  so. 
The  day  of  reckoning  must  come.  If  postponed  beyond  college, 
it  will  come  rather  in  wrath  than  in  mercy.  Certainly  many 
freshmen  students,  whom  it  would  be  criminally  absurd  to  send 
back  to  the  high  school  and  foolishly  unjust  to  exclude  from  col- 
lege, have  not  learned  the  accuracy  of  thought  and  power  of  sus- 
tained attention  required  to  win  genuine  credits  for  their  first  at- 
tempts at  college  courses  in  which  accuracy  is  directly  tested. 
Some  persons,  also,  are  naturally  slow  to  develop  linguistic  adapt- 
ability if  the  period  of  childhood  is  not  utilized  (as  it  should  be) 
for  that  purpose.  Many  begin  to  study  the  modern  languages 
they  need  after  coming  to  college.  From  one  cause  or  another  the 
student  we  are  considering  has  his  exercises  returned  to  him  cov- 
ered with  red  ink.  He  tries  to  do  better,  but  loose  habits  are  hard 
to  replace  by  the  steadfastly  alert  attention  and  critically  logical 
analysis  which  are  the  only  means  of  accuracy  in  any  sphere.  In 
this  business  every  mistake  brings  immediate  accountability,  and 
herein  is  a  great  mercy.  Many  a  student  choosing  some  History- 
and-Political-and-Social- Sciences  group,  never  discovers  that  in- 
accuracy is  so  confirmed  in  him  by  the  time  he  receives  the  col- 
lege degree,  that  he  could  not  make  an  exact  copy  of  a  printed 
paragraph  even  though  aware  that  he  was  on  trial.*  If  our  stu- 


*This  is  no  imaginary  supposition.  I  have  tested  many  stenographers, 
some  of  them  college  graduates,  by  asking  them  to  copy  accurately  a 
printed  page.  I  have  never  found  one  who  passed  the  ordeal — disregard- 


348  VALUE   OF   PERSEVERANCE 

dent  is  thus  failing  in  one  of  his  courses,  why  should  he  be  forced 
to  drop  it?  By  hypothesis  he  is  not  overburdened  in  respect  to 
health,  or  anything  of  that  sort.  There  is  no  way  by  which  he 
can  learn  to  be  accurate  except  by  practice.  His  infirmity  is  not 
to  be  cured  by  repentance  or  postponement.*  Morality  and  pru- 
dence would  counsel  him  to  persevere  through  the  year,  and  he 
should  be  encouraged  to  see  that  he  may  thereby  acquire  the 
needed  control  of  his  faculties  and  carry  the  course  easily  next 
year  as  an  extra.  If  the  student  were  failing  in  like  manner  in 
more  than  half  of  his  courses,  why  should  he  be  ejected  from 
the  university?  By  hypothesis  he  is  prepared  for  the  university 
by  age  and  in  every  respect  except  discipline  of  mind.  The  uni- 
versity is  the  place — and  no  other,  and  the  present  the  time,  for 
repairing  the  deficiencies  in  his  training.  His  presence  in  a  class 
interferes  with  nobody  unless  the  instructor  is  very  incompetent, 
preposterously  irritable  and  egotistical,  or  stupidly  cruel.  The 
only  complaint  that  arrant  selfishness  could  reasonably  make  would 
the  the  instructor's  loss  of  time  in  correcting  poor  exercises.  It 
deserves  no  other  answer  than  the  remark  that  perhaps  none  of 
his  teaching  time  is  spent  to  much  better  advantage,  and  the  re- 
tort that  in  the  universities  in  which  such  abuses  are  m|ost  pro- 
nounced the  custom  is  springing  up  of  turning  over  all  exercises 
to  be  examined  and  corrected  (?)  by  student  assistants.  In  my 
experience  the  men  who  cry  out  most  loudly  against  dull  or  ill- 
prepared  students  in  their  classes  contrive  to  shirk  work  of  every 
sort,  and  waste  much  of  the  time  they  do  give  to  teaching  in 


ing  typographical  slips  on  letters  in  the  body  of  words.  Words  or  punc- 
tuation marks  have  always  been  changed  or  omitted,  or  syllables  omitted 
or  changed  (such  as  -ed  for  -es  in  tense  forms  of  verbs).  I  expected  no 
better,  and  have  simply  directed  the  young  man's  attention  to  his  infirmity 
and  explained  that  it  could  be  remedied  only  by  a  constant  vigilance, 
adding  that  he  must  be  handing  in  whole  pages  free  from  such  slips  within 
three  months,  or  he  would  not  be  satisfactory. 

*If  the  truth  is  to  be  told,  members  of  the  faculty,  not  a  few,  share  his 
fault — as  is  well  known  to  everyone  who  has  edited  their  contributions 
for  cold  print. 


ACCESSOEY    SYMPTOMS  349 

querulous  and  often  insulting  talk.  Where  such  men  or  women 
flourish  you  always  find  rules  prohibiting  students  from  dropping 
a  course  or  going  to  another  section  without  the  instructor's  per- 
mission, else  self-respecting  students  would  leave  the  room  of  such 
a  teacher. 

It  is  not  possible  to  describe  every  significant  symptom  of  the 
diseases  which  it  is  the  main  purpose  of  this  work  to  diagnose. 
(In  such  matters  a  true  diagnosis  indicates  the  remedy.)  Men- 
tion should  be  made,  however,  of  a  practice  recently  adopted  in 
some  universities  whereby  an  instructor  may  turn  over  one  of  the 
three  hours  of  each  course,  nominally  offered  by  him,  for  a  quiz 
conducted  by  a  student  who  receives  some  petty  pay  for  the  work, 
e.  g.,  $15  a  month.  Of  course,  the  best  men  rarely  take  advantage 
of  this  permission;  but  those  to  whose  unwisdom  the  enactment 
of  injuriously  restrictive  laws  for  students  and  for  secondary 
schools  is  largely  due,  avail  themselves  of  the  unseemly  privilege 
very  complacently.  I  say  unseemly,  because  it  reduces  the  legiti- 
mate time  meaning  of  a  "course,"  and  substantially  breaks  an  ex- 
press or  implied  pledge  and  agreement  with  other  universities. 

To  give  m«any  examples  of  the  litter  of  minor  statutes  usually 
spawned  by  the  main  idea,  would  consume  too  much  space.  Such 
as  the  following  are  typical.  They  are  taken  from  the  catalog  of 
a  state  university  (claiming  to  be  the  greatest  in  a  vast  section  of 
the  United  States)  which  began  a  departure  from  noble  internal 
principles  about  fifteen  years  ago  and  has  now  accumulated  nearly 
all  the  errors  of  organization  and  administration  referred  to  in 
this  book.  Within  recent  years  it  has  developed,  in  what  the 
pathologists  would  call  a  pathognomonic  case,  nearly  every  known 
symptom  of  the  causative  disorders. 

(1)  "Attendance  on  a  course  without  ^eing  registered  for  it  is  not 
allowed."  No  question  of  fees  is  involved  in  this  rule,  for  "tuition  is  free 
in  all  departments  of  the  University." 

Consider  what  conceptions  of  scholarship,  of  intellectual  life,  of  uni- 
versity spirit  must  prevail  in  the  administrative  authorities,  and  in  the 


350  ACCESSORY   SYMPTOMS 

faculty  committee  created  by  them,  who  demanded  the  enactment  of  such 
a  law.  Imagine  how  profoundly  discouraged  and  silenced  must  be  the 
enlightened  spirits  in  the  faculty.  Change  the  prevalent  mode  of  organi- 
zation, and  all  this  would  quickly  be  changed.  I  have  heard  that  the 
deans  in  this  university  recently  discussed  whether  a  member  of  the  faculty 
might  attend  the  lectures  of  a  colleague.*  The  spiritual  nausea  suffered 
as  I  heard  the  account  may  have  confused  memory,  but  my  memory  is 
that  it  was  said  they  decided  it  had  better  not  be  permitted.  Probably 
no  action  was  taken;  the  question  could  only  have  arisen  in  respect  to 
some  yet  undampened  spirit,  new  to  the  atmosphere  of  the  place,  who 
could  easily  be  managed  by  suggestion. 

(2)  "Such  students  are  called  special  students,  and  may  remain  in 
the  university  only  if  they  pass  in  all  their  courses."  This  refers  to 
students  over  twenty-one  years  old  who  are  permitted  to  take  as  few  as 
three  courses. 

I  direct  attention  to  this  bit  of  law-making  as  a  specimen  for  the  student 
of  morbid  psychology.  The  law-making  appetite  grows  by  what  it  feeds 
on.  One  not  addicted  to  this  vice  would  naturally  assume  that  special 
students,  over  twenty-one,  might  labor  under  deficiencies  of  regular  prep- 
aration which  might  prevent  success  in  the  first  attempt  at  some  strong 
serious  course.  Having  admitted  such  a  man  for  an  opportunity  to  get 
later  in  life  instruction  enjoyed  by  others  at  earlier  periods,  it  is  atrocious 
to  forbid  him  to  persevere  for  the  conquest  of  a  course  in  which  he  is 
failing  at  his  first  attempt.  And  what  is  it  to  declare  that,  on  account 
of  failure  in  one  course,  he  shall  not  be  allowed  to  complete  other  courses 
in  which  he  may  be  gaining  admirable  results?  As  I  have  pointed  out 
such  a  law  is  commonly  evaded  either  by  crediting  the  man  with  the 
course  in  which  he  is  failing,  rather  than  eject  from  the  university  a 
worthy  man  who  is  perhaps  doing  brilliantly  in  another  course;  or  by  the 
general  weakening  of  courses  and  lowering  of  real  standards  until  any 
student,  however  impotent,  who  attends  regularly  and  hands  in  something 
for  every  exercise  may  be  "passed."  Those  who  attempt  to  justify  this 
law  will  probably  say  that  men  over  twenty-one  years  of  age  might,  if 
permitted  to  fail  in  a  single  course,  attend  the  university  only  to  be  on 
its  football  team.  That  argument  need  not  be  characterized.  Evidently 
it  is  not  necessary  to  eject  from  the  university  in  order  to  remove  from 


•C/.     p.  218;  also  p.  228. 


MEETING   THE   ISSUE  351 

a  ball  team.     The  latter  question  should  be  dealt  with  directly,  and,  indeed, 
is  so  dealt  with  by  the  rules  governing  athletics. 

The  purpose  and  just  purport  of  the  references  to  existing  con- 
ditions here  presented,  would  be  totally  misunderstood  if  any 
reader  should  be  incited  by  the  information  either  to  helpless  de- 
spair, or  to  impatient  retributive  measures.  If  members  of  gov- 
erning boards,  for  instance,  were  to  undertake  to  replace  faculty 
regulations  with  which  they  are  disgusted  by  new  rules  drafted 
by  the  regents,  a  worse  disorganization  would  be  consummated 
than  that  which  is  the  originating  cause  of  the  present  evils.  A 
college  or  university  which  has  erred  from  right  paths  can  be  put 
in  the  way  of  genuine  reformation  and  progress  only  by  reorgan- 
izing measures  such  as  have  been  indicated  in  previous  chapters, 
and  by  securing  a  competent  and  magnanimous  executive  officer 
of  the  governing  board.  If  the  regents  will  act  strictly  within 
their  proper  sphere,  if  the  president  will  not  overstep  his  proper 
authority  (preferring  leadership  to  dictatorship),  and  if  the  fac- 
ulty be  required  to  meet  its  proper  responsibilty  after  powers 
usurped  from  it  have  been  restored, — then,  deans  would  be  faculty 
officers,  not  presidential  lieutenants ;  committees  would  consult  wise 
heads  and  deliberate  candidly,  and  would  not  be  flaccid  conduits 
whereby  extraneous  designs  may  appear  to  arise  in  and  from  the 
faculty;  and  individuals  would  gradually  acknowledge  and  meet 
their  proper  responsibilities,  and  no  longer  would  members  of  the 
faculty  who  should  be  leaders  neglect  initiative  and  avoid  debate. 

Meanwhile,  there  can  be  no  successful  skulking  about  the  issues 
that  have  arisen.  Every  self-styled  university  must  sooner  or 
later  come  to  be  known  for  what  it  chooses  to  be.  As  yet,  the 
public  and  governing  boards  generally  only  know  that  something 
is  wrong;  but  a  spreading  and  deepening  dissatisfaction  will  pre- 
cipitate discussion  in  which  the  fact  is  going  to  come  to  light  that 
many  of  the  best  young  men  who  graduate  from  some  universities 
are  grieving  over  or  resentful  of  a  maladministration  which  they 


352  FUNDAMENTAL   REMEDY 

feel  has  caused  great  personal  loss  to  themselves  and  may  deprive 
their  own  progeny  and  society  in  general  of  the  benefits  they  sought 
and  expected  to  receive  when  they  went  to  college. 

The  main  danger  lies  in  the  propensity  of  the  people  to  demand 
remedies  from  legislatures,  and  from  the  impulse  of  members  of 
governing  boards  when  dissatisfied  with  the  work  of  administra- 
tive officers  to  perform  themselves  things  that  belong  to  the  faculty 
•or  ought  to  be  done  by  an  executive  officer.  Usurped  authority 
is  almost  never  exercised  wisely.  If  the  proper  responsibility  and 
corresponding  authority  of  the  faculty  is  not  recognized  by  gov- 
erning board  and  chief  executive,  disorder  follows  in  all  spheres. 
The  faculty  deteriorates  and  seldom  even  attempts  to  meet  its 
unrecognized  responsibilities.  The  governing  board  is  incompetent 
to  discharge  the  function  of  a  faculty,  nor  can  its  executive  offi- 
cers be  harmlessly  substituted  for  the  faculty. 

It  would  be  utterly  intemperate  to  make  the  existence  of  the 
present  evils  a  reason  for  refusing  to  establish  conditions  from 
which  good  results  could  grow.  The  worse  anyone  thinks  of  some 
present  circumstance,  the  more  urgent  he  ought  to  be  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  proper  organization — the  only  foundation  for  true 
improvement.  There  is  no  instant  remedy  for  accumulated  conse- 
quences of  wrong  organization  and  erroneous  administration.  The 
governing  power  can  help  only  by  establishing  organic  conditions 
that  favor  the  healthful  functioning  of  the  faculty  and  of  admin- 
istrative officers  in  their  respectively  proper  spheres.  If  given  fair 
opportunity,  competent  knowledge  and  good  judgment  should  pre- 
vail.* Time  will  be  required;  but  to  deny  the  reasonableness  of 


*A  notable  example  of  the  manner  in  which  wise  recommendations  and 
pleas  by  college  faculties  have  often  been  ignored  by  governing  boards  in 
the  history  of  the  American  college,  is  afforded  by  a  report  of  the  faculty 
of  Amherst  College  in  1826.  If  that  report  had  been  duly  regarded  it 
would  have  advanced  the  institution  by  more  than  half  a  century.  Full 
extracts  from  the  report  are  given  in  Foster's  Administration  of  the  Col- 
lege Curriculum.  Instead  of  promptly  following  Virginia's  lead,  all  that 
Amherst's  faculty  could  secure  "was  a  single  option  in  the  second  term  of 


CREDIT    FOR    QUALITY  353 

this  hope  would  be  absolute  pessimism.  To  the  confirmed  pessim- 
ist there  is  nothing  to  say.  Under  proper  conditions,  the  faculty's 
best  resources  of  skill  and  wisdom  would  spring  into  activity,  and 
if  a  wise  influence  on  the  part  of  the  chief  executive  be  added  right 
progress  will  be  assured.  Beyond  the  sphere  of  the  legitimate 
executive  authority  (i.  e.,  the  execution  of  the  legislative  acts  of 
the  governing  board)  the  mode  of  the  president's  leadership  of  the 
faculty  must  be  that  of  honorable  counsel,  without  suspiciou  of 
dictatorial  purpose  or  implicit  coercion.  As  for  the  methods  of 
intrigue — he  must  be  above  suspicion.  On  no  other  terms  is  it 
possible  for  faculty  meetings  to  be  other  than  shams — feared  or 
resented  by  all  members  who  are  both  upright  and  intelligent. 

Credit  for  Quality 

From  the  beginning  some  open-eyed  spirits  have  recognized 
that  in  American  colleges,  "the  good  scholar  is  placed  nearly  on 
a  level  with  the  sluggard;  for,  whatever  may  be  his  exertions,  he 
can  gain  nothing  in  respect  to  time,  and  the  latter  has,  in  conse- 
quence of  this,  less  stimulus  for  exertion."  The  words  quoted 
were  written  in  1826  by  Captain  Partridge  who  had  opened  his 
Academy*  at  Northfield,  Vermont,  in  1820  with  an  elective  system 
five  years  before  the  University  of  Virginia  was  opened  to  stu- 
dents. The  Harvard  faculty  once  made  a  proposal  for  recogniz- 


senior  year, — Hebrew  or  Fluxions."  By  1834,  even  that  single  elective  had 
disappeared.  "Thus  perished,"  comments  President  Foster,  "in  the  west 
of  Massachusetts  the  hopes  that  were  already  blighted  in  the  east  [Refer- 
ring to  Ticknor's  attempt  in  1823  to  institute  the  elective  system  and 
lecturing  at  Harvard].  They  were  to  rise  again  only  with  the  rise  of 
a  new  generation." 

*Foster  tells  of  the  "great  and  immediate  popularity"  of  the  worthy 
institution,  in  which,  within  a  period  of  three  years,  "nearly  twelve  hun- 
dred students  enrolled,  of  whom  there  were  over  one  hundred  from  South 
Carolina  alone."  Evidently  its  scientific  studies  and  elective  system  met 
a  need  that  the  then  existing  college  ignored.  "Yet,"  says  Foster,  "Yale 
and  Trinity  appear  to  have  prevented  Captain  Partridge  from  securing  a 
Connecticut  charter  and  the  privilege  of  granting  degrees." 


354  CREDIT    FOR    QUALITY 

ing  the  principle:  "A  man  whose  work  is  of  high  grade  should 
not  be  required  to  take  so  many  courses  as  a  man  whose  work  is 
of  low  grade/' 

That  quality  ought  to  be  recognized  and  appreciated  as  an  in- 
trinsic fact  is  to  my  mind  a  fundamental  principle,  which  will 
scarcely  be  openly  disputed.  Even  this  general  principle  is  covertly 
resisted  by  those  foes  of  genuine  education  (and  of  genuineness 
in  every  sphere)  who  are  either  the  originating  or  the  instrumental 
causes  of  all  the  worst  features  of  the  inner  work  and  life  of  our 
colleges  and  universities;  but  there  may  be  difference  of  opinion 
among  better  men,  whether  recognized  good  quality  of  a  student's 
work  should  have  the  particular  effect  of  reducing  the  number  of 
courses  required  for  a  degree.  In  the  great  majority  of  institu- 
tions there  is  no  regard  for  quality  in  respect  to  the  number  of 
courses  required  for  the  undergraduate  degree.  Everyone  who 
comprehends  the  facts  knows  that  the  grade  marks  A  and  B  ought 
to  signify  and  generally  do  signify  not  only  immensely  better  qual- 
ity of  work,  but  also  much  greater  quantity  of  work  than  marks 
C  and  D;  nevertheless,  usually  the  fixed  number  of  C's  and  D's  or 
of  A's  and  B's  indifferently  brings  the  same  degree.  In  some  in- 
stitutions degrees  are  given  with  and  without  distinction,  or 
"honors";  but — with  several  exceptions — excellence  has  no  effect 
upon  the  time  required  to  make  the  degree.  Indeed,  the  prevalent 
practice  often  leads  to  superficiality  on  the  part  of  those  who  take 
the  degree  in  less  than  four  years,  because  time  may  be  reduced 
by  doing  passable  work  in  an  extra  number  of  courses,  but  cannot 
be  reduced  by  doing  work  of  better  quality  and  greater  quantity 
in  fewer  courses. 

Harvard  offeres  a  slight  credit-for-quality  by  excusing  students 
who  get  C,  or  higher  grade,  in  freshman  English  from  the  half- 
course  in  English  Composition  exacted  of  all  others. 

The  University  of  North  Dakota  tried  for  six  years  the  follow- 
ing plan — similar  to  the  Chicago  plan — and  then  abandoned  it: 
Every  student,  to  graduate,  must  win  a  number  of  "honor  points" 


CREDIT   FOR    QUALITY  355 

equal  to  the  number  of  semester-hours  required  for  the  dgeree. 
Each  A  carries  three  honor  points  per  semester-hour;  B,  two;  C, 
one;  D,  none.  This  demands  an  average  of  C  for  graduation. 
Students  averaging  B  are  allowed  to  take  18  hours  a  week,  or  six 
courses  a  year ;  but  there  is  no  credit-f  or-quality  in  this  plan.  The 
time  of  residence  is  not  reduced  by  high  marks. — one  is  merely 
permitted  to  reduce  the  time  by  a  part  of  one  year  if  he  can  carry 
always  one  extra  course. 

The  University  of  North  Dakota  abandoned  its  attempt  to  ex- 
act good  quality  of  work  for  the  alleged  reason  that  members  of 
its  faculty  "gave  to  an  absurdly  large  number  of  students  the 
'surplus  credit'  marks  of  A  or  B."*  This  reminds  me,  as  Presi- 
dent Foster  remarks,  of  the  argument  against  the  elective  system, 
that  students,  free  to  choose,  take  snap  courses, — as  though  the 
fact,  if  true,  were  to  be  charged  to  the  elective  system  and  not  to 
an  administration  which  suffers  weak  or  worthless  courses  to  be 
offered.  I  shall  point  out  improvements  in  adminstration  that 
tend  to  correct  the  substantial  fault. 

A  genuine  credit-for-quality  plan  involves  such  credit  for  excel- 
lent marks  as  may  reduce  the  time  to  three  years  for  students  of 
best  ability.  Suppose  20  courses  pursued  with  medium  ability  be 
required  for  the  degree.  If  these  be  valued,  say,  at  160  credit 
points,  then  0=  8  points.  If  A=12,  B=10,  0=8,  D=6,  E=0; 
then  20  courses,  each  made  with  grade  C  would  give  160  points, 
or  5  A's  and  10  B's,  or  1  A  and  14  B's  and  1  C,  or  3  A's  and  8 
B's  and  4  C's  and  2  D's,  etc.  It  might  be  advantageous  to  refuse 
to  give  any  credit  for  more  than  2  D's  in  one  year.  There  would 
be  almost  as  many  combinations  as  students,  and  some  would  find 
themselves  with  slight  surplus  credits.  The  latter  fact  would  do 
no  harm :  it  will  seem  objectionable  only  to  trivial  minds. 

Systems  of  this  kind  have  been  adopted  by  several  colleges — 
notably  by  the  University  of  Iowa  and  Eeed  College,  and  it  may 


*Prof.  E.  F.  Chandler  of  N.  D.  Univ.,  quoted  by  Foster. 


356  CREDIT    FOR   QUALITY 

be  hoped  that  the  example  and  experience  of  the  University  of 
Missouri  will  have  a  growing  influence. 

The  University  of  Missouri  has,  I  believe,  the  best  administered 
genuine  credit-for-quality  system.  The  plan  is  substantially  the 
same  as  the  plan  I  have  suggested  in  more  familiar  terms,  and  in, 
perhaps,  more  clearly  expressed  numerical  relations.  In  the  Uni- 
versity of  Missouri  the  marks  in  undergraduate  courses  are  E,  S, 
M,  I,  F  (Graduate  students  are  reported  simply  "passed"  or  "not 
passed")  : 

"E  means  that  the  individual  is  one  of  the  few  most  excellent  students. 
.  .  .  The  grade  of  Excellent  will  be  given  to  the  few  students  who  have 
manifested  unusual  ability  in  a  particular  branch  of  study.  ...  S  is 
given  to  those  students  who  impress  the  instructor  as  being  superior  to 
approximately  75  per  cent  of  all  students  who  have  pursued  this  study 
during  recent  years.  .  .  .  M  means  that  the  student  ranks  among 
the  medium  students,  approximating  50  per  cent  of  each  class.  .  .  . 
Below  the  grade  of  M,  the  grade  of  I  means  that  a  student  is  somewhat 
below  the  medium,  ...  a  student  who  impresses  his  teacher  as  being 
inferior  to  75  per  cent  of  all  students  in  this  particular  branch  of  study. 
The  grade  of  F  [failure]  places  the  student  among  those  ranking  lowest. 
.  .  .  Students  may  not  be  permitted  to  take  up  work  for  which  their 
inferior  work  is  preliminary.  The  professor  of  the  department  in  which 
the  student  wishes  to  take  the  new  course  will  decide  upon  such  cases 
individually.  He  may  require  additional  preparation,  but  the  grade  orig- 
inally recorded  on  the  student's  grade  card  will  not  be  changed.  .  .  . 

"For  each  recitation  hour  for  which  the  grade  of  Excellent  is  recorded, 
the  student  will  receive  30  per  cent  additional  credit  [50  per  cent  in  the 
scheme  above].  For  each  recitation  hour  for  which  the  grade  of  Superior 
is  recorded  he  will  receive  15  per  cent  [25  per  cent  in  the  scheme  above] 
additional  credit  towards  graduation.  The  faculty  further  recognizes  that 
those  students  who  are  inferior  to  seventy-five  in  a  hundred,  but  whose 
work  is  not  estimated  by  the  teacher  as  a  complete  failure,  are  entitled 
to  some  credit.  Students  will,  therefore,  be  given  four-fifths  [75  per  cent 
in  scheme  above]  of  the  normal  credit  towards  graduation  for  each  reci- 
tation hour  for  which  the  grade  of  Inferior  is  recorded."* 


University  of  Missouri  Catalogue,  1911-12    (or  1912-13). 


GRADING  357 

Moral  reasons  of  deep  and  far-reaching  nature  support  such  a 
system,  while  its  most  immediate  objects  are  to  encourage  students 
to  do  the  best  work  of  which  they  are  capable,  and  to  permit  the 
most  capable  to  graduate  in  three  years. 

How  vastly  better  is  this  way  of  meeting  the  public's  justified 
dissatisfaction  with  the  uniform  requirement  of  four  years,  than 
President  Butler's  proposal  to  reduce  the  college  period  for  all  stu- 
dents, or  than  Harvard's  ineffectual  steps  in  reducing  the  number 
of  courses  required  (from  20  to  17)  and  attempted  raising  of  en- 
trance requirements.  In  the  latter  plan,  neither  half-step  goes 
far  enough  to  be  effectual  from  its  side.  Moreover,  a  real  raising 
of  entrance  requirements  properly  covering  a  year's  study  would 
not  truly  reduce  the  required  time  at  all;  three  and  one  make 
four  as  well  as  two  and  two.  The  inordinate  time  consumed  by 
the  American  system  of  public  education  is  due  to  spending  eight 
years  in  the  elementary  school  on  ground  that  would  be  better 
covered  in  six  years.* 

Grading 

Many  articles  and  some  books  have  recently  appeared  discussing 
what  the  writers  have  called  "scientific"  distribution  of  grades. 
The  prominence  given  to  talk  about  the  normal  probability  curve 
— embellished  with  diagrams  of  that  curve  associated  with  other 
curves  skewed  according  to  various  hypotheses — has  obscured  a 
plain  common-sense  matter.  It  has  led  to  misconceived  proposals 
in  many  faculties,  and  may  lead  some  of  them  to  injurious  action. 

Not  long  ago  the  "Dean  of  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences"** 
of  a  large  state  university  called  a  meeting  of  the  college  faculty 
to  explain  scientific  grading.  He  announced  that  the  method  he 
would  expound  had  been  practiced  for  some  years  very  successfully 
by  the  University  of  Missouri,  citing  also  Eeed  College  and  Presi- 


*See  Note  on  Elementary  Schools  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 
**See  pages  239-240. 


358  GRADING 

dent  Foster's  book.  He  proceeded  with  a  jaunty  attempt  to  startle 
benighted  minds  into  conceiving  the  sway  of  Probability  over  all 
mundane  events.  (Some  of  his  hearers  understood  as  well  as  he 
the  mathematical  formula?  of  probability,  and  it  may  be  hoped  that 
the  majority  of  them  understood  better  than  he  the  proper  signifi- 
cance and  applicability  of  the  doctrine.)  In  the  manner  of  men 
who  think  they  know  how  to  make  school  boys  'sit  up  and  listen,' 
he  told  them  that  they  could  calculate  the  value  of  Pi  by  throwing 
silver  dollars  at  a  crack  in  the  floor.  His  exordium  need  not  be 
further  described.  He  proceeded  to  tell  them  that  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Missouri  the  highest  mark  was  given  to  a  fixed  per- 
centage of  each  class,  the  next  mark  to  another  fixed  percentage, 
and  so  on,  maintaining  the  propriety  of  such  a  method  with  vari- 
ous jokes  and  serious  invocation  of  probability  curves.  A  few 
members  of  that  faculty  still  make  dwindling  endeavors  to  debate 
committee  reports  and  even  to  question  the  proposals  of  appointed 
deans.  But  to  several  protests,  that  the  proposed  performance 
would  frequently  be  both  unreasonable  and  immoral,  and  that 
often  a  class  had  no  member  who  deserved  A  and  sometimes  none 
who  deserved  E,  the  smiling  dean  replied  that  he  could  see  no 
question  of  morals  and  that  the  Professor  was  forgetting  the  scien- 
tific character  of  the  marks.  He  actually  went  on  to  say  that  it 
would  make  no  difference  whether  the  instructor  or  the  registrar 
gave  the  marks ;  that  the  instructor  might  simply  report  the  names 
of  the  students  in  the  order  of  their  class  standing  and  the  regis- 
trar could  give  the  A's,  B's,  C's,  D's,  and  E's  in  the  fixed  propor- 
tions. In  this  peculiar  exaggeration,  the  Dean  may  have  been 
carried  beyond  his  intention,  but  the  matter  was  not  elucidated 
and  there  was  no  further  discussion.  The  Dean  made  a  few  more 
jokes  and  vouchsafed  a  few  more  crumbs  of  information  about 
probability  and  curves,  in  a  rather  disheartened  way  (being  by 
nature  kindly  and  accommodating)  as  if  discouraged  by  the  slow- 
ness of  his  hearers.  He  then  brought  the  meeting  to  an  end  by 
asking  a  member  lately  called  from  Missouri  to  tell  them  before 


THE    MISSOURI    PLAN  359 

adjourning  how  the  Missouri  faculty  liked  its  system.  Whether 
from  lack  of  knowledge  or  from  timidity  the  man  called  upon  did 
not  correct  the  Dean's  misstatement  of  the  University  of  Mis- 
souri's practice.  He  merely  answered  that  he  believed  the  great 
majority  approved  the  plan  and  that  it  worked  satisfactorily.  I 
witnessed  this  humiliating  scene,  as  a  visitor  at  the  invitation  of 
the  President.  The  President  presided  over  the  meeting,  but  made 
no  comment  except  to  thank  the  Dean  for  his  instructive  explana- 
tion of  a  vexed  question. 

It  is  true  (as  some  one  has  said)  that  it  is  every  man's  busi- 
ness to  know  his  business  and  if  he  does  not  he  hasn't  any  business 
to  be  in  his  business,  but  the  disorganization  and  arbitrary  admin- 
istration of  most  American  universities  renders  ignorant  or  foolish 
proposals  in  their  faculties  as  dangerous  as  they  are  in  political 
campaigns  and  before  legislatures.  In  this  instance  probably  few 
of  the  Dean's  hearers  will  give  any  careful  thought  to  the  matter, 
or  even  discover  his  misrepresentation  of  the  Missouri  plan.  Mean- 
while, the  growing  good  repute  and  prestige  of  the  University  of 
Missouri  commend  measures  attributed  to  it,  and  some  good  men, 
yet  too  indolent  to  examine  things  for  themselves,  would  support 
a  measure  so  recommended. 

Let  us  understand  the  simple  facts  as  to  what  is  done  in  the 
Universit}'  of  Missouri, — whose  practice  President  Foster  avers 
constitutes  "the  most  scientific  distribution  of  actual  college  credits 
ever  made,"  which,  he  says,  "means  that  we  come  nearer  to  know- 
ing what  a  grade  stands  for  at  the  University  of  Missouri  than 
at  any  other  institution  in  the  country."  The  gist  of  this  state- 
ment is  doubtless  true,  but  there  is  little  or  no  propriety  in  the 
talk  about  "scientific"  grading.  It  would  be  clearer  and  more 
appropriate,  to  say  that  the  plan  is  more  intelligent  and  more  in- 
telligible than  others  and  yields  results  more  nearly  just  and  true. 
But  what  is  this  sensible  way?  The  exposition  by  the  Dean  is  no 
less  absurd — though  less  monstrous — than  if  he  had  advised  a  leg- 
islature to  adjust  the  death  rate  of  citizens  of  respective  ages  to 


360  THE   MISSOURI   PLAN 

foreordained  probabilities.  The  University  of  Missouri  does  no 
such  thing. 

In  the  first  place  the  proportion  of  no  mark  is  fixed  for  every 
class,  but,  as  stated  in  the  catalog  the  Dean  claimed  to  be  explain- 
ing, the  proportions  refer  to  the  experience  of  each  instructor  with 
"all  students  who  have  pursued  this  study  during  recent  years." 
In  the  second  place,  no  proportion  at  all  is  assigned  for  the  mark 
meaning  excellent:  "E  means  that  the  individual  is  one  of  the 
few  most  excellent  students;  the  grade  of  Excellent  will  be  given 
to  the  few  students  who  have  manifested  unusual  ability  in  a  par- 
ticular branch  of  study."  This  second  point  is  perfectly  clear  in 
Foster's  description  of  "Scientific  Grading  at  the  University  of 
Missouri,"  in  the  book  cited  by  the  Dean.  In  regard  to  the  first 
mentioned  misrepresentation,  Foster's  book  might  seem  in  one 
sentence  to  fall  into  the  Dean's  error,  but  the  facts  are  restated 
several  times  correctly  in  the  following  pages.  The  sentence  re- 
ferred to  reads:  "According  to  the  definitions  adopted  in  1908, 
grades  A+B  must  equal  25  per  cent;  grade  C,  50  per  cent;  and 
grades  D-f-E,  25  per  cent  of  the  total  number  given  by  each  in- 
structor."* But  Foster  immediately  makes  it  evident**  that  by 
the  25  per  cent  which  A-j-B  "must  equal,"  he  means  only  to  refer 
to  the  fact  that — except  for  the  "few  most  excellent  students" 
who  may  receive  A, — "S  [i.  e.,  B]  is  given  to  those  students  who 
impress  the  instructor  as  being  superior  to  approximately  75  per 
cent  of  all  students  who  have  pursued  this  study  during  recent 
years." 

Finally,  for  small  classes  reasonable  and  honest  grading  seldom 
approximates  the  scale  adopted  as  a  general  norm.  Mathematical 


*He  makes  the  footnote:  "The  symbols  used  at  the  University  of  Mis- 
souri are  E,  S,  M,  I,  F."  See  page  356,  supra. 

"Foster's  account  of  the  grading  in  the  University  of  Missouri  is  ap- 
proximately correct;  but  the  story  told  on  page  288  is  an  absurdity,  and 
must  have  been  somehow  confused  by  him.  It  could  hardly  have  been  told 
to  him  as  a  joke.  Neither  the  governing  board  nor  the  faculty  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Missouri  ever  passed  a  man  not  passed  by  his  instructor. 


THE    MISSOURI    PLAN  361 

probability  comes  into  this  matter  only  in  the  sense  that  the  scale 
adopted  was  tentatively  determined  from  an  examination  of  the 
records  of  four  previous  years.  I  say  tentatively,  because  future 
experience  may  indicate  need  of  altering  the  apportionments. 
This,  indeed,  is  probable  unless  it  happened  that  in  the  averages 
for  the  past  the  errors  of  unchecked  individuals  so  compensated 
each  other  that  careful  attention  to  the  matter  will  discover  no 
need  of  adjustments.  In  any  event,  it  seems  likely  that  reasons 
for  some  difference  between  the  normal  apportionments  for  fresh- 
men and  the  apportionments  for  higher  classes  may  appear. 

The  most  important  feature  in  the  administration — as  distin- 
guished from  the  design — of  the  Missouri  plan  has  not  yet  been 
mentioned:  The  statistics  of  the  grading  of  each  teacher  are 
compiled  and  reported  to  all  members  of  the  faculty.  Each  is  ex- 
pected to  explain  and  justify  (to  himself)  or  to  amend  any  con- 
siderable deviation  from  the  proportions  adopted  as  normal.  If 
some  "easy"  grader  should  imagine  that  a  group  of  very  superior 
students  had  chosen  to  attend  a  course  in  which  he  has  given  an 
abnormal  proportion  of  high  marks,  he  can  find  out  how  the  same 
students  are  doing  in  their  other  courses, — or  vice  versa.  This 
reasonable  and  worthy  administration  of  the  plan  has  secured  con- 
tinually improving  results.  Perhaps  there  are  members  of  the 
faculty  who  could  not  explain,  and  still  do  not  understand,  the 
plan  by  which  each  is  supposed  to  test  and  criticise  his  own  im- 
pressions ;  but  comprehension  and  approval  have  grown  since  Foster 
reported  that,  although  about  90  per  cent  of  the  members  of  the 
faculty  who  in  1910  answered  his  inquiry  approved  the  plan  after 
several  years  experience,  fifteen  "think  that  the  effect  is  to  dis- 
courage the  efforts  of  some  students."  It  need  only  be  remarked 
that,  if  any  students  were  discouraged,  it  was  because  they  were 
allowed  to  imagine  that  the  marks  would  be  given  to  fixed  por- 
tions of  the  class.  Intelligent  young  men  with  high  principles 
would,  indeed,  if  they  were  free  to  act,  leave  an  institution  under- 
stood to  be  committed  to  such  stupid  misrepresentation. 


362  GRADING 

The  fundamental  principles  which  must  be  made  clear  and 
heeded,  if  benefits  are  to  be  secured,  are : 

1.  The  matter  must  be  dealt  with  reasonably. 

The  proportions  adopted  as  normal  must  be  treated  as  tentative,  and 
adjustments  should  be  made  if  well  supported  tendencies  appear  to  per- 
sist in  deliberately  justified  variation  from  the  normal.  Of  course,  the 
truth  in  each  individual  case,  if  discerned,  must  be  reported  without  regard 
to  the  assumed  probability. 

2.  The  work  to  be  graded  must  mean  attainment,  not  effort. 

This  vital  principle  is  grievously  sinned  against  in  America  at  all  edu- 
cational stages.  Emasculated  morals,  in  which  false  sentiment  has  been 
engendered,  induce  many  university  professors  to  vouch  for  proficiency  in 
mathematics  or  chemistry  or  history  because  the  student  keeps  regular 
hours  and  is  submissive  to  all  rules  intended  to  govern  conduct.  The  vice 
has  so  grown  by  what  it  feeds  on  that  professors  are  not  scarce  who,  con- 
versely, bear  false  witness  against  the  real  attainments  of  students  who 
cut  lectures  as  far  as  permissible,  or  are  suspected  of  indulgences  in  any 
sort  of  frowned-upon  escapades.  Whatever  may  be  alleged  against  college 
athletic  sports  in  America,  they  uphold  the  truth  in  the  important  sphere 
of  life  and  morals  in  which  intentions  cannot  be  honestly  substituted  for 
achievement.  Diligent  effort  and  dutiful  conduct  without  the  required 
prowess  do  not  win  places  on  football  teams, — conduct  and  attainment  are 
not  confused  or  falsely  reported. 

3.  The  grading  of  every  teacher  and  the  general  averages  must  be  pub- 
lished within  the  faculty,  and  each  member  should  compare  the  facts  and 
justify   (to  himself)   or  amend  his  practice. 

There  is  no  legitimate  obstacle  to  the  immediate  trial  of  such 
a  plan.  The  practical  obstacles,  I  believe  are  (a)  Lack  of  interest 
in  the  administration  of  the  curriculum  on  the  part  of  faculties 
consequent  upon  the  loss  of  genuine  responsibility  and  commen- 
surate authority,  (b)  Proper  resistance  to  muddle-headed  pro- 
posals made  by  quidnuncs  who  have  heard  of  something  new,  but 
will  not  take  the  trouble  to  comprehend  what  they  undertake  to 
advocate. 

If  the  three  fundamental  principles  are  duly  regarded,  any  rea- 
sonable normal  for  the  frequency  of  the  respective  marks  may  be 


GRADING  363 

assumed,  subject  to  future  correction  or  verification.  In  the  Mis- 
souri plan,  every  instructor  is  admonished  to  justify  or  to  adjust 
persistent  deviation  of  his  grading  from  the  following  normal : 

The  "Superior"  grades,  plus  the  exceptional  "Excellent"  if  any,  approxi- 
mate 25  per  cent  of  large  undergraduate  classes. 

The  "Medium"  approximate  50  per  cent  of  large  undergraduate  classes. 

The  "Inferior"  plus  the  "Failure"  approximate  25  per  cent  of  large 
undergraduate  classes. 

If  this  scale  errs,  as  a  norm,  it  is  excessive  at  the  top.  I  would 
prefer  to  let 

A+B  approximate    20  per  cent  in  large  undergraduate  classes. 

C  approximate  50  per  cent  in  large  undergraduate  classes. 
D+E  approximate    30  per  cent  in  large  undergraduate  classes. 

The  word  "definition"  ought  to  be  avoided  in  every  statement 
or  explanation  of  such  a  plan,  lest  it  be  taken  in  its  strict  mean- 
ing. President  Foster  opens  himself  to  this  for  those  who  lack 
the  modicum  of  common  sense  that  would  preserve  them  from  the 
misunderstanding.  For  instance,  after  concluding  that  the  nor- 
mal probability  curve  would  better  be  "skewed  as  indicated  in  Fg- 

ure  20"  so  as  to  make 

A=  2   per  cent. 

B=18  per  cent. 

C=50  per  cent. 

D=24  per  cent. 

E=  6  per  cent. 

he  suggests  "an  elastic  definition  of  the  grades : 

"A=  0 —  6  per  cent. 
B=15 — 21  per  cent. 
C=45 — 55  per  cent. 
D=20 — 25  per  cent. 
E=  0—10  per  cent." 

Foster  does  not  really  mean  that  either  his  "elastic"  or  inelastic 
( ?)  scale  consists  of  definitions  in  the  strict  sense,  for  he  says 


364  GRADING 

that  every  member  of  the  faculty  should  be  required  to  adhere 
closely  to  the  "adopted  definition  in  the  long  run" — which  neces- 
sarily implies  that  the  thing  adopted  is  not  a  strict  definition.  He 
also  says:  "Every  instructor  should  be  required  to  justify  his 
eccentricities,  at  least  in  a  series  of  years."  But,  then,  what  need 
or  room  is  there  for  the  "elastic  definition  ?"  There  will  be  some 
classes  in  which  less  than  15  per  cent  or  more  than  21  per  cent 
will  be  superior  to  the  medium  attainment,  or  in  which  less  than 
20  per  cent  are  inferior,  or  in  which  more  than  10  per  cent  fail. 
The  loose  use  of  the  word  definition  does  not  obscure  for  an  alert 
reader  the  plan  he  recommends,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  fact  that 
some  writers  and  many  talkers  have  misunderstood  him. 

President  Foster's  exposition  would  have  been  more  serviceable 
if  he  had  eschewed  the  destriptive  term  "scientific/'  said  nothing 
about  curves,  and  invoked  probability  merely  to  base  an  assumed 
normal  on  the  experience  of  past  years.  I  protest,  moreover,  that 
there  is  no  propriety  in  his  speculations  about  supplanting  this 
method,  which  he  advocates  for  the  nonce,  through  "the  discovery 
of  units  of  measurement  in  every  school  subject,  and  the  construc- 
tion, by  scientific  methods,  of  scales  that  can  be  applied  as  the 
foot-rule  is  now  applied,  regardless  of  time,  or  place,  or  persons/'* 
He  is  of  the  opinion :  "Measurements  of  results  [i.  e.  the  attain- 
ments of  college  students]  with  quantitative  precision  will  be 
made  as  soon  as  people  know  enough  to  demand  such  measure- 
ments." I  do  not  know  whether  this  is  exaggerated  "democracy" 
or  rhapsody;  but  it  might  as  soberly  be  said  that  the  people  will 
get  the  moon  as  soon  as  they  know  enough  to  cry  for  it.  It  is  cer- 
tainly a  far  cry  to  base  on  Professor  Thorndike's  scientific  tests 
and  measurements  a  notion  that  "equal  units"  can  be  discovered 
whereby  we  shall  measure  with  "precision"  the  concrete  perform- 
ances of  individual  minds  in  respect  to  scholarly  attainments. 
Again, — with  reference  to  the  best  plan  we  can  follow  until  the 


'Interested  readers  are  referred  for  side  lights  to  Alice  in  Wonderland. 
See  pages  338-341  supra. 


GRADING  365 

people  know  enough  to  demand  the  discovery  of  "equal  units," — 
it  is  true  enough  that,  "In  any  group  of  individuals  representing 
a  single  species,  the  distribution  of  any  trait  not  then  influenced 
by  natural  selection  appears  to  he  that  of  a  chance  event,  and  the 
surface  of  frequency  for  that  trait  approaches  that  of  the  probabil- 
ity integral."  But  what  has  this  to  do  with  justly  appraising  the 
actual  attainments  of  an  individual  student?  Mastery  of  a  course 
of  study  is  not  an  affair  of  one  trait  or  simple  sum  of  traits,  nor 
has  the  influence  of  selection  (as  he  indicates  repeatedly)  been 
eliminated.  By  skewing  the  probability  curve,  one  can,  of  course, 
after  the  events,  make  a  frequency  surface  to  fit  the  mass  resultant 
of  an  immense  number  of  any  sort  of  somewhat  similar  events; 
but  it  would  be  monstrous  foolishness  to  confer  college  degrees  or 
to  withhold  them  according  to  the  frequency  of  the  degrees  earned 
by  a  group  of  other  individuals.  The  antecedent  frequency,  be  it 
noted,  was  assumed  to  have  been  justly  determined  by  intrinsic 
judgments  upon  the  performances  of  those  individuals,  else  the 
normal  probability  curve  could  not  have  been  skewed  to  fit  the 
case.  Hence,  the  said  curves,  normal  or  skewed,  refer  to  a  prob- 
ability which  can  be  intelligently  employed  only  to  check  devia- 
tions that  result  from  carelessness  or  poor  judgment.  Such  a 
check  is  very  useful,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  the  simple  plan 
I  have  described  is  submitted  for  consideration.  There  is  nothing 
especially  scientific  about  it;  it  belongs  to  the  wider  categories, 
reasonable  and  prudent. 

The  most  important  scientific  view  in  the  matter  of  grading 
the  attainments  of  college  students  is  the  knowledge  that  such 
marks  as  69^,  or  even  such  as  83,  are  devoid  of  true  discrimina- 
tion. I  have  heard  of  a  recent  instance  in  which  a  degree  was  de- 
nied to  a  law  student,  who  stood  well  in  his  other  courses,  on 
account  of  a  deficiency  in  an  examination  on  one  subject  of  one- 
half  of  a  "point"  below  the  passing  grade.  The  professor,  in 
sternly  resisting  the  remonstrance  of  a  committee  of  his  colleagues, 
nursed  in  all  sincerity  a  delusion  of  Roman  virtue  on  his  part; 


366  GRADING 

whereas  it  is  a  fact  that  he  probably  could  not  regrade  the  papers 
of  that  class  with  less  than  an  average  difference  of  five  of  his 
points  for  the  two  sets  of  marks.  This  fact  has  been  proved.  All 
teachers  ought  to  know  it.  The  notions  and  practice  of  a  great 
many  of  them  involve,  in  some  respects,  such  a  mistake  as  would 
be  made  if  one  went  through  a  building  estimating  the  length  and 
breadth  of  each  room  in  inches,  instead  of  in  feet  or  yards. 

Professor  Starch,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  has  reported* 
that  the  grades  assigned  to  two  English  papers  by  142  teachers  of 
English  ranged  from  64  to  98  for  one  of  the  papers  and  from 
50  to  98  for  the  other,  and  the  grades  given  a  mathematics  paper 
by  118  teachers  of  mathematics  ranged  from  28  to  92.  The  grades 
given  by  10  instructors  of  freshman  English,  all  in  one  university 
(Unv.  Wis.),  to  10  papers  written  in  a  final  examination  showed 
about  the  same  average  variation  from  the  mean, — S5. 3  as  com- 
pared with  5.4  for  the  Eng.  and  math,  papers  first  mentioned. 
Prof.  Starch  states  that  the  range  was  also  as  great,  but  if  so 
the  minimum  28  which  he  gives  for  the  paper  in  mathematics  is  a 
misprint.  The  10  instructors  referred  to  endeavor  to  have  uni- 
formity in  their  sections  and  the  same  final  examination  is  given 
to  all.  One  of  the  tables  gives  grades  assigned  originally  and  again 
after  an  interval  to  the  same  papers  by  the  same  instructors,  each 
for  students  in  his  own  section.  The  difference  between  the  marks 
assigned  at  different  times  to  the  same  papers  by  the  same  teacher 
is  on  the  average  4.4,  and  is  about  the  same  for  all  subjects — 
mathematics,  language,  physical  sciences.  The  instructor  who 
varied  least  used  "a  purely  mechanical  method  of  grading,  deduct- 
ing so  many  points  for  each  kind  of  error."  He  thus  varied  less 
from  his  previous  grades,  but  it  should  not  be  imagined  that  his 
marks  were  more  just. 

We  need  go  no  further  into  this  subject.  Professor  Starch  in- 
fers that  "the  smallest  distinguishable  step  that  can  be  used  with 


•Science,  Oct.  31,  1913. 


GRADING  367 

reasonable  validity  is  roughly  5  points."  Hence  the  marking  scale, 
instead  of  being  100,  99,  98,  97,  etc.,  should  be  100,  95,  90,  85, 
etc.;  these,  he  argues,  "are  the  smallest  divisions  that  can  be  used 
with  reasonable  confidence  by  a  teacher  grading  his  own  pupils." 
For  my  part  I  deem  the  whole  idea  of  equal  quantitative  grada- 
tions (on  any  scale)  inapplicable  to  this  matter  in  any  substantial 
sense.  There  is  an  important  truth  in  the  facts  adduced  in 
abundance  by  Professor  Starch  and  many  others,  but  that  truth 
bears  mainly  on  the  falseness  of  impossible  distinctions  and  on  the 
folly  of  every  petty  way  of  grading.  Let  the  teacher  keep  private 
memoranda  in  number  symbols,  if  he  thereby  helps  his  memory 
and  judgment;  but  let  him  know  that  he  is  responsible  for  form- 
ing at  the  end  of  the  course  a  fair  estimate  of  the  quality  of  each 
student's  work,  or  at  the  least  for  determining  truthfully,  without 
qualitative  distinction,  whether  or  not  the  course  ought  to  be 
credited.  I  judge  that  estimates  of  quality  will  be  best  formed 
and  expressed  by  some  such  system  as  that  used  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Missouri;  and  that  the  crediting  of  a  course  is  rightly 
determined  only  by  deciding  at  its  end  whether  or  not  the  student 
holds  in  his  mental  grasp  a  fair  approximation  to  what  miay  be  re- 
garded as  the  proper  permanent  residuum  of  the  subject-matter 
of  that  course, — I  mean  those  essential  results  of  the  course  as 
designed  and  conducted  which  ought  to  be  more  or  less  perma- 
nently retained,  say  for  a  year  at  least.  The  professed  scholar  and 
teacher  who  does  not  know  how  to  discern  such  essentials  is  mis- 
taken in  his  profession  and  unfit  for  the  position  he  occupies.  It 
will  never  do  to  claim  that  a  university  teacher  cannot  find  out 
these  vital  facts  in  the  majority  of  cases.  It  is  one  of  his  respon- 
sibilities. If  he  sees  the  obligation  and  takes  reasonable  steps  to 
meet  it,  he  will  succeed  in  proportion  to  his  scholarship,  good 
sense,  and  manliness.  The  abuses  now  prevalent  have  sprung  from 
wrong  conceptions  imposed  by  custom  and  from  the  tangles  of  'red 
tape'  imposed  by  arbitrary  legislation. 


368  GRADING 

Two  espesially  demoralizing  practices  should  be  mentioned  be- 
fore leaving  this  topic. 

In  some  cases  from  individual  choice,  in  others  from  weak  sub- 
mission to  faculty  resolutions  or  administrative  requests,  some  col- 
lege teachers  deduct  a  fixed  number  of  points  for  every  absence  not 
excused  on  account  of  sickness.  The  effect  of  any  absence  upon 
the  attainments  testified  to  by  a  teacher  when  he  credits  a  course 
is  not  a  fixed  quantity,  but  in  any  case  is  the  same  whatever  the 
cause  of  the  absence.  Absences  are  amenable  to  disciplinary  con- 
trol; but  whenever  they  mechanically  determine  report  on  scholar- 
ship, it  means  that  the  teachers  so  reporting  either  do  not  care 
much  whether  they  tell  the  truth  or  not,  or  consent  to  falsify  at 
some  impertinent  request  or  at  the  behest  of  a  majority  vote.  Such 
conduct  announces  to  the  students  not  only  that  the  teacher  does 
not  desire  to  find  out  the  truth,  but  also  that  he  will  deliberately 
bear  false  witness  in  certain  events.  There  is  only  one  way  in 
which  sound  young  men  regard  such  devices;  no  sophisry  can 
blind  them  until  they  have  lost  the  virtues  native  in  them  or 
learned  through  the  example  and  precepts  of  honorable  associates. 

In  some  universities  there  are  teachers  of  every  rank  who  turn 
over  the  grading  of  all  written  work  (exercises  and  examinations) 
to  cheaply  employed  students — often  little  or  not  at  all  advanced 
beyond  students  whose  work  they  estimate.  Sometimes  it  is  ar- 
ranged that  one  of  the  young  judges  shall  grade  Answer  No.  1  of 
all  papers,  reading  no  more  of  any  paper;  another,  Ans.  No.  2, 
and  so  on.  In  examinations  requiring  discursive  answers  it  is 
necessary  to  read  the  whole  paper  to  estimate  it  fairly,  yet  this 
objection  is  ignored,  like  all  others,  in  these  conscienceless  prac- 
tices— conscienceless  from  their  roots  to  all  their  branches.  Of 
course,  the  best  members  of  faculties  are  not  guilty  of  such  things ; 
but  the  practice  is  spreading  in  some  of  our  universities  like  a 
vile  parasitical  infection,  and  it  is  one  of  the  distinct  grounds  for 
that  moral  disgust  and  indignant  or  sorrowful  resentment  which 


ADMISSION    REQUIREMENTS  369 

is  becoming  evident*  in  the  most  virile  young  men  now  attending 
or  who  have  recently  left  such  colleges. 

A  dm ission  Req  uire m  en ts 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  give  details  of  the  confused  mass  of 
regulations  governing  admission  to  American  colleges.  They  are 
in  a  worse  state  than  the  requirements  for  graduation.  The  source 
of  the  trouble  is  the  same  for  both — misconceived  ideas  about  uni- 
formity and  democracy  with  readiness  to  enforce  agitated  opinion? 
by  reckless  legislation.  Despotic  extremes  appear  in  some  of  the 
State  Universities,  but  it  will  suffice  to  refer  to  the  conditions  that 
have  come  to  pass  in  a  comparatively  conservative  and  carefully 
administered  endowed  university,  as  described  in  a  very  temperate 
report  made  in  1910  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Ad- 
mission, of  Harvard  University: 

"In  presenting  my  annual  reports  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Admission,  it  has  seemed  best  to  me  to  use  the  opportunity  they  give  me 
to  point  out  some  of  the  ways  in  which  the  theories  embodied  in  our  rules 
for  admission  work  out  in  actual  practice.  This  leads  me  to  seem,  per- 
haps, to  emphasize  unduly  the  defects  in  our  system;  but  as  my  work 
gives  unusual  advantages  in  seeing  the  effects  of  our  regulations  upon  boys, 
teachers,  and  schools,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  I  could  be  most  useful  by 
setting  forth  what  I  have  learned  from  that  experience.  Without  actual 
contact  with  individual  applications  for  admission,  no  one,  I  believe,  can 
realize  the  infinite  variety  of  conditions  to  which  our  rules  are  applied: 
and  that  contact  reveals  mat  college  prescriptions  oftentimes  have  quite 
different  effects  from  those  they  are  intended,  and  supposed,  to  produce. 
.  .  .  For  every  one  of  its  prescriptions,  considered  by  itself,  the  College 
can  plausibly  urge  that  it  is  made  in  the  interest  of  sound  education;  but 
any  one  whose  work  compels  him  to  enforce  these  prescriptions,  and  who 
is  thereby  brought  face  to  face  with  individual  boys  and  teachers,  soon 
learns  that  rules  made  for  hypothetical  boys  do  not  work  as  they  are  sup- 
posed to  work  when  applied  to  actual  boys,  and  that  the  total  effects  of 
college  prescriptions  in  actual  practice  may  be  summarized  under  tl;t  ful- 


•Cf.  pp.  351-352. 


370  ADMISSION  KEQUIBEMENTS. 

lowing  heads,  no  one  of  which  can  be  regarded  as  characteristic  of  sound 
education : 

1.  Over-pressure  among  students. 

2.  Restraint  in  using  the  best  methods  among  teachers. 

3.  Distortion  of  curricula. 

4.  General   emphasis  on  facts  and  knowledge  rather  than  on  thought 
and  power. 

5.  Low  standards  of  scholarship. 

"It  was  not,  however,  upon  these  effects  of  our  admission  system  that 
I  wished  to  dwell.  I  have  called  attention  to  them  merely  to  emphasize 
the  point  which  I  wish  to  make,  that  regulations  which  considered  by 
themselves  seem  unquestionably  good  may,  when  taken  together  with  other 
regulations,  exert  effects  quite  contrary  to  those  intended,  and  that  there 
is  a  much  greater  discrepancy  between  our  theory  and  its  practical  work- 
ing than  most  people  suppose.  The  effects  to  which  I  wish  to  call  atten- 
tion this  year  are  the  effects  of  our  admission  system  upon  quality  of 
scholarship  in  Harvard  College,  none  of  which  were  intended,  but  which 
follow  naturally  from  our  regulations.  .  .  . 

"I  wish  to  present  some  experience  of  the  Committee  on  Admission 
which  goes,  I  think,  to  show  that  our  system  tends: — 

"1.  To  restrict  the  field  from  which  good  students  may  be  drawn,  and 
therefore  to  depress  the  average  quality  of  a  class. 

"2.  To  confine  within  a  restricted  field  the  students  selected  to  those 
who  have  received  their  training  in  a  particular  type  of  school. 

"3.  To  restrict  our  students  to  those  who  have  been  subjected  to  influ- 
ences which  help  to  make  them  look  on  study  not  as  good  in  itself  but 
merely  for  what  it  brings. 

"Anything  which  restricts  the  range  of  choice  lowers  the  average  quality 
of  men  chosen  in  each  successive  class.  There  are,  of  course,  other  reasons 
beside  our  system  of  admission  to  account  for  the  facts  shown  by  the  fig- 
ures; but  any  one  who  administers  correspondence  about  admission  will 
soon  learn  that  the  system  of  admission  is  the  most  powerful  fa«tor  in 
producing  these  facts.  .  .  .  The  different  tables  given  indicate,  I  believe, 
that  our  system  of  admission  in  its  practical  working  tends  to  restrict 
students  in  Harvard  College  to  those  whose  school  training  has  been 
within  the  small  part  of  the  country  which  can  come  under  the  direct 
influence  of  our  system  of  admission,  and  within  that  field  to  students 
who  have  been  trained  in  the  type  of  school  known  as  the  preparatory 
school. 


ADMISSION    REQUIREMENTS  371 

"In  the  administration  of  admission  to  college,  it  is  very  noticeable  that 
as  a  class  teachers  in  preparatory  schools  desire  the  college  to  specify 
minutely  what  boys  must  do  in  order  to  obtain  admission  to  college,  the 
reason  being  that  they  have  found  college  requirements  the  most  effective 
arguments  in  persuading  boys  to  work.  Boys  in  preparatory  schools, 
therefore,  have  constantly  put  before  them  an  end  of  study  which  is  out- 
side the  study  itself.  When  they  come  to  college,  they  look  upon  their 
college  work  in  the  same  way:  in  school,  they  study  to  get  into  college; 
in  college,  they  study  to  get  a  degree;  in  both,  they  economize  energy  by 
doing  as  little  as  will  accomplish  the  purpose.  Contact  with  many  hun- 
dreds of  these  youths,  both  before  and  after  they  enter  college,  has  con- 
vinced me  that  the  lack  of  interest  in  intellectual  pursuits  of  which  we 
complain  in  our  students  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  them 
spend  the  most  impressionable  years  of  their  lives  in  an  atmosphere  in 
which  study  is  regarded  not  as  an  end  desirable  in  itself,  but  as  a  means 
to  the  practical  end  of  getting  into  college.  In  saying  this,  I  do  not  mean 
to  blame  the  preparatory  schools;  for  they  are  the  results  of  a  system  for 
which  I  believe  the  present  college  requirements  for  admission  are  re- 
sponsible. 

"I  should  like  to  illustrate  the  points  which  I  have  tried  to  make  by 
actual  cases  which  will  show  how  our  methods  virtually  exclude  excep- 
tionally fine  students,  and  how  difficult  it  is  for  the  Committee  on  Admis- 
sion to  administer  a  scheme  which  is  essentially  quantitative  in  such  a 
way  as  to  select  for  the  college  men  of  good  quality.  When  admission 
requirements  are  discussed  in  the  faculty,  the  debate  usually  turns  on  a 
particular  subject  or  the  way  of  teaching  it;  but  the  work  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Admission  is  the  practical  work  of  selecting  students.  Very 
little  of  that  work  is  necessary  to  convince  one  that  you  cannot  select 
good  students  by  prescribing  what  and  how  they  shall  study.  To  illus- 
trate this,  I  will  give  first  the  programme  of  a  boy  who  attended  a  school 
whose  curriculum  has  always  been  determined  by  our  requirements  for 
admission.  The  numbers  at  the  right  of  the  subjects  indicate  the  school 
periods  per  week  given  to  the  study. 

First  Year.  Second  Year.  Third  Year.  Fourth  Year. 


English 

3 

English 

3 

English 

T 

English  

3 

2 

History  

2 

History. 

9 

Latin  

4 

3 

French 

3 

3 

Greek  

5 

6 

Latin  

4 

Latin 

4 

Mathematics... 

4 

1 

5 

*, 

Physics  

4 

Mathematics... 

..  4 

Mathematics... 

3 

Mathematics... 

.  3 

19  20  20  20 


372  ADMISSION    REQUIREMENTS 

"This  boy  entered  Harvard  easily  without  conditions,  dividing  his 
examinations  between  two  years.  His  record  was  mostly  made  up  of 
unsatisfactory  grades — he  had  no  grade  higher  than  C,  and  only  three  C's 
out  of  ten  grades.  His  record  thus  far  in  college  indicates  that  he  is  not 
a  desirable  student.  .  .  . 

"I  wish  to  give  one  more  illustration  which  I  think  is  even  better  of 
the  way  our  theories  work  for  the  exclusion  of  brilliant  students.  The 
case  I  select  is  that  of  a  student  in  a  high  school  in  Detroit. 

First  Year  Second  Year.  Third  Year.  Fourth  Year. 


Algebra  

.  5       Algebra  5 

Geometry  .  ... 

5 

Geometry  3 

Latin  

.  5       Latin                     5 

French 

5 

i  Coll   Algebra    4 

Anc.  History.... 

.  4       Phys.  Geogr         4 

Chemistry 

5 

J  Trig     4 

English  

.  4       Mech   Drawing   4 

English 

4 

i  Adv.  Chem  10 
$  Solid  Geom....  3 
i  German  5 

"Of  this  student,  the  headmaster  of  his  school  writes  as  follows  (the 
italics  are  mine)  : 

I  am  enclosing  at  your  request  an  outline  of  the  work  by  the  most  brilliant  pupil  in 
our  graduating  class  this  year.  You  will  observe  that  his  course  would  not  permit  him 

to  enter  Harvard  College.     When  Mr was  here  a  year  ago  he  asked  me  to 

notify  the  University  of  any  young  man  here  who  gave  promise  in  any  particular 
subject,  as  the  University  would  be  glad  to  offer  such  a  student  inducement  to  go  to 
Harvard.  This  young  man  is  the  brightest  mathematician  I  have  known  during  my 
twenty-five  years  in  high  schools.  As  an  illustration  of  his  ability,  during  the  past 
year  he  has  read  by  himself,  as  recreation,  most  of  the  Differential  and  Integral 
Calculus;  and  he  has  also  done  reading  in  Analytical  Geometry.  He  has  done  what 
would  be  regarded  as  advanced  work  in  college  chemistry. 

"It  is  hard  to  say  what  this  student  could  have  done  if  he  had  wished 
to  come  to  Harvard.  By  our  examinations  he  could  hardly  have  made  a 
record  of  more  than  sixteen  points,  not  because  he  had  not  done  more 
work,  but  because  our  system  would  give  him  barely  a  chance  to  show 
what  he  has  done  in  languages,  and  no  chance  at  all  to  show  wherein  he 
is  strongest.  If  by  some  lucky  chance  the  Committee  on  Admission  got 
an  opportunity  to  pilot  him  through  the  shoals  and  bars  of  our  admission 
requirements  they  would  be  obliged  to  admit  him  under  conditions  which 
would  stamp  him  as  inferior  to  dull  boys  like  the  one  I  mentioned  first, 
and  of  whom  there  is  a  large  number,  and  to  make  him  work  at  a  rate 
of  more  than  twenty  courses  for  his  degree. 


ADMISSION    REQUIREMENTS  373 

"These  cases  are  only  two*  of  a  large  number  which  correspondence  about 
admission  continually  reveals,  and  are  examples  of  thousands  we  never 
hear  of.  From  men  like  these,  our  present  regulations  for  admission  cut 
us  off,  and  operate  in  favor  of  dull  and  indifferent  students  like  the  man 
whose  school  programme  I  gave  first. 

"In  view  of  these  facts,  it  seems  to  me  that  one  who  is  constantly 
occupied  with  the  actual  business  of  admitting  students,  or  of  explaining 
how  they  can  or  cannot  be  admitted  to  the  privileges  of  the  college,  may 
be  permitted  a  certain  impatience  and  exasperation  at  the  waste  of  good 
material  he  is  compelled  to  witness.  It  would  be  perfectly  possible  in  a 
few  years  to  have  as  many  students  of  the  type  I  last  mentioned  as  we 
now  have  indifferent  students  if  the  Committee  on  Admission  were  em- 
powered to  admit  men  by  merit  alone.  Any  committee  of  the  faculty  that 
was  free  to  act  after  collecting  facts  about  an  applicant's  school  record 
and  examining  him  in  those  subjects  in  which  he  is  best  able  to  show  his 
quality  could  choose  for  the  faculty  a  body  of  students  that  would  relieve 
teaching  of  all  its  drudgery,  and  make  it  a  perpetual  delight.  The  scholar- 
ship of  Harvard  College  depends  more  on  the  men  we  choose  than  on 
anything  we  can  do  after  we  get  them.  The  present  method  of  choice, 
intricate  and  complex,  working  in  obscure  ways,  cuts  us  off  from  thou- 
sands of  good  students,  and  depresses  the  quality  of  those  we  get." 

I  ask  the  candid  reader  to  answer  this  question:  Why  is  it 
that  such  convincing  statements  are  not  heeded  hy  the  faculties 
to  which  they  are  submitted?  And  I  submit  to  all  readers  who 
are  anywise  responsible  for  the  government  of  universities  the 
suggestion  that  it  would  be  well  to  accept  the  general  diagnosis 
offered  in  this  book,  unless  some  other  equally  consistent  deter- 
mination of  causes  and  remedies  is  offered  and  adopted. 


*The  other  case  was  of  a  pupil  who  stood  at  the  head  of  a  class  of  180 
in  a  Minnesota  high  school,  who  could  not  be  admitted  to  Harvard  without 
conditions  that  would  have  exacted  21  courses  for  graduation,  as  coin- 
pared  with  the  17J  courses  required  of  the  dull  man  first  described.  The 
excellent  student  probably  went  to  Cornell. 


374  RELATION    TO    SECONDARY    SCHOOLS 

The  Proper  Relation  of  the  American   University  to 
the  American  High  School. 

In  any  useful  consideration  of  a  practical  question,  the  essential 
principles  that  must  underlie  any  wise  conclusion  are  distinctly 
separated  from  those  subordinate  details  which  are  either  of  tran- 
sitory import  or  of  dubious  effect.  Some  of  the  most  injurious 
mistakes  made  by  mankind  proceed  from  the  failure  to  attain 
such  clarity  of  reasoning  in  the  popular  consideration  of  plans 
for  societal  action.  This  fact  is  not  merely  the  consequence  of 
the  complexity  of  every  concrete  problem  of  social  welfare,  but  it 
is  also  the  result  of  an  interference  by  the  passions  which  are 
always  involved  and  generally  illogically  involved  in  every  matter 
requiring  sustained  co-operation.  AATiatever  the  proper  relation 
of  the  American  university  to  the  high  school  may  be,  it  is  certain 
that  the  men  who  are  clamoring  about  antagonistic  purposes  or 
interests  are  darkening  counsel.  It  is  true  that  some  damage, 
along  with  mutual  service,  has  come  from  each  side  to  the  other, 
but  there  is  no  conflict  of  genuine  interests. 

No  fixed  statement  of  the  proper  relation  is  possible  or  needed, 
but  some  permanent  features  of  a  proper  relation  may  be  inferred 
from  proved  errors  of  activity  and  of  attitude.  The  most  con- 
spicuous mistake  that  has  been  made  by  the  higher  institutions 
is  but  another  manifestation  of  that  rashness  which  makes  men 
ready  to  enforce  by  law-making  power  every  notion  of  virtue  or 
expediency  that  may  take  possession  of  undisciplined  minds.  Such 
men  have  of  late  years  exercised  an  abnormal  influence  in  the  per- 
functory acts  of  university  faculties.  Thus,  partly  from  inad- 
vertence and  partty  from  attempt  to  get  by  force  of  law  results 
unattainable  by  such  means,  our  universities  have  imposed  injurious 
regulations  upon  our  secondary  schools.  It  is  important  to  under- 
stand that  we  have  herein  not  something  done  at  the  expense  of 
the  high  schools  for  the  good  of  the  universities,  as  many  are 


EASE    OF    CORRECTION  375 

exclaiming;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  all  true  interests  of  the 
universities  suffer  even  more  from  these  mistakes  than  do  the  high 
schools.  While  the  high  schools  may  well  lift  aloud  the  voice  of 
protest  against  some  injurious  compulsions  and  restrictions  im- 
posed upon  them,  they  are  in  a  position  to  make  the  retort: 
"Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  me,  but  weep  for  your- 
selves and  for  your  children." 

The  abuses  referred  to  are  characterized  by  the  absence  of  evil 
intention,  by  their  accidental  nature,  and  by  the  ease  with  which 
they  could  be  corrected.  It  is  only  necessary  for  the  universities 
to  recognize  that  they  ought  not  to  dictate  beyond  minimum 
requirements  for  profitable  attendance  in  the  first  courses  of 
study  offered  by  them.  They  may  and  ought  to  give  advice  far 
beyond  their  peremptory  requirements,  but  it  is  neither  possible 
nor  desirable  for  them  to  inspect  authoritatively  everything  that 
an  affiliated  high  school  undertakes  to  do.  Wjithin  the  sphere  of 
legitimate  demands  for  admission  it  would  be  well  to  establish 
more  thoroughly  the  authority  of  the  university,  but  the  attempt 
to  spread  authority  over  everything  and  for  all  purposes  weakens 
it  where  it  is  legitimate  and  would  be  beneficial. 

The  universities  should  thank  their  stars  that  the  burden  and 
responsibility  of  legislating  for  the  general  good  of  the  high 
schools,  as  distinguished  from  their  own  legitimate  requirements, 
does  not  rest  upon  them.  On  the  other  hand,  I  would  have  the 
universities  become  far  more  sensible  of  their  true  responsibility 
for  wise  counsel  in  this  and  in  many  other  spheres. 

A  good  basis  for  the  development  of  the  proper  relation  between 
colleges  and  secondary  schools  would  be  provided  by  two  easy 
reforms,  towit:  the  repeal  of  supererogatory  regulations,  and  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  advice  is  better  not  given  unless  it  be  wise 
advice. 

If  these  remarks  were  left  without  concrete  illustration,  it  is 
probable  that  their  bearings  might  not  be  understood  by  some. 
For  that  reason  I  cite  two  examples: 


376  TWO   SPECIMENS 

One  of  the  largest  universities  in  the  United  States  (not  a 
state  university)  has  undertaken  the  direct  government — except 
for  "independent  business  management/'  which  is  solemnly  per- 
mitted— of  "all  academies  and  other  secondary  schools"  that  aspire 
to  be  "affiliated."  Only  those  schools  are  admitted  to  that  high 
adoption  which  place  themselves  "under  the  advisory  management 
of  the  university  in  respect  to  faculties,  curricula,  and  educational 
methods."  The  usual  relation  of  "inspecting"  everything  and 
"recognizing"  or  not  recognizing,  is  also  maintained  with  other 
schools,  which  is  designated  by  the  term  "co-operation";  but  this 
term,  all  are  advised,  is  to  be  "carefully  distinguished  from  'affil- 
iation'." To  such  an  extreme  has  one  enormous  university  been 
precipitated. 

Another  institution  (a  state  university)  promulgated  in  1910 
the  requirement  that  for  full  credit  in  the  subject  of  English,  "at 
least  one-fourth  of  all  the  pupil's  school  work  in  each  year  of  a 
four  years'  high  school  course  must  be  done  in  English."  Some 
other  college  may  have  made  the  same  law,  but  as  far  as  I  know 
this  particular  fatuity  is  unique,  it  was,  indeed,  quietly  revoked 
after  protest  from  high  school  men,  nevertheless  it  aptly  illustrates 
the  sort  of  thing  that  the  mistaken  attitude  I  am  indicating  is 
likely  to  cause  a  university  to  stumble  into.  It  would  be  well  to 
offer  different  degrees  of  approbation  or  credit;  but  excellence  of 
results  is  the  only  rational  ground  for  the  highest  credit.  To 
make  the  devotion  of  some  absolute  amount  of  time  a  requisite, 
might  not  be  absurd ;  but  to  demand  an  absolute  ratio  to  the  time 
devoted  to  all  other  activities,  is  not  only  preposterous  in  the 
abstract  but  would  interfere  with  many  desirable  possibilities. 
For  instance,  a  pupil  who  in  even  one  of  his  four  years  had  taken 
five  studies  would,  under  this  rule,  forfeit  a  degree  of  credit  in 
English  to  which,  by  hypothesis,  he  would  be  entitled  by  the 
amount  and  quality  of  his  knowledge  of  English,  if  he  had  not 
taken  that  fifth  study. 

Five  years  ago  I  would  not  have  believed  that  such  a  rule  could 


THE  "UNIT"  377 

be  enacted  by  a  respectable  faculty,  except  through  inattention  to 
a  thoughtless  proposal  by  some  individual  who  had  been  intrusted 
with  matters  too  wonderful  for  him.  But  I  learned  through 
experience  that  clear  statements  of  objections  were  not  only  uncon- 
vincing, but  apparently  unintelligible  to  some  presumed  experts. 
I  may,  therefore,  without  apology,  point  out  several  more  self- 
evident  facts:  (1)  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  amount  of 
time  a  pupil  devotes  to  any  one  study  by  the  number  of  "recita- 
tions." (2)  English  is  learned  best  in  a  school  where  the  precepts 
of  the  English  class-room  are  practically  enforced  in  every  other 
room,  and  through  proper  study  of  some  other  language.  (3)  If 
the  university's  influence  were  strong  enough  to  excite  ambition 
to  win  its  maximum  approval  in  this  subject,  some  almost  indis- 
pensable studies  would  be  crowded  out  of  reach.  This  would 
necessarily  follow  in  the  particular  case  referred  to,  because  of  a 
simultaneous  regulation  compelling  every  subject  to  be  taught 
every  day.  That  is  to  say,  five  recitations  a  week  throughout  the 
year  must  be  devoted  to  a  subject,  or  credit  for  a  year's  study  is 
refused.  The  whole  obliquity  of  the  rule  for  full  credit  in  English 
is  not  apparent  until  this  other  presumptuous  rule  requiring  five 
periods  a  week  in  every  subject  is  taken  into  account. 

The  colleges  of  this  country  might  be  classified  as  to  their  rela- 
tions with  secondary  schools,  into  those  that  define  a  "unit"  of 
credit  for  admission  as  (1)  not  less  than  three  recitations  a  week 
for  a  year;  (2)  not  less  than  four  a  week;  (3)  those  who  do  not 
allow  any  elbow  room  at  all,  but  require  recitations  every  day  in 
every  subject,  on  pain  of  exacting  two  years'  work  for  one  year's 
credit.  This  order  1,  2,  and  3  corresponds  to  a  decreasing  com- 
prehension of  the  subject-matter  of  the  legislation.  I  do  not  mean 
to  suggest  the  preferability  of  the  minimum  for  all  subjects;  but 
latitude  is  needed  for  the  very  reason  that  different  allotments 
ought  to  be  made  for  different  subjects,  or  for  the  same  subject 
under  different  conditions. 


378  PROPER   ALTERNATIVES 

There  are  two  ways  whereby  proper  relations  of  our  high  schools 
to  our  universities  might  be  established  so  as  to  safeguard  legiti- 
mate requirements  for  entrance,  and  so  as  to  set  and  keep  the  high 
schools  free  to  discharge  their  manifold  functions. 

One  way  is  for  the  universities  to  admit  through  their  own 
examinations,  offering  the  same  examination  at  every  high  school 
requesting  it,  and  at  their  own  doors — as  many  universities  as 
possible  adopting  the  same  examination.*  This  is  the  simplest 
way  of  avoiding  the  existing  evils.  It  should  be  followed  unless 
the  preferable  but  more  difficult  way  be  cleared  of  present  obstruc- 
tions. 

The  other  way  is  for  the  universities  to  recede  from  their  vain 
attempt  to  control,  by  requirements  for  "recognition,"  everything 
that  the  high  schools  do.  Xo  such  task  is  imposed  upon  them 
either  by  duty  or  necessity.  On  the  contrary,  the  attempt  dis- 
sipates their  legitimate  and  much  needed  influence,  and  demoral- 
izes the  secondary  schools. 

The  universities  may  justly  and  prudently  require  for  admission 
to  their  courses  of  instruction  (1)  a  fair  quota  of  the  proper 
results  of  what  is  called  "formal  education";  (?)  sufficient  dis- 
cipline of  mind  to  proceed  firmly  and  swiftly  in  new  advances 
contemplated  in  the  college  curriculum,  and  (3)  in  several  sub- 
jects a  definite  minimum  of  accurate  knowledge  which  is  pre- 
supposed by  the  corresponding  college  courses.  This  they  could 


*The  advantage  of  such  a  system  competently  administered  may  be 
considered  by  reading  a  discussion  of  the  question  by  President  Edward 
McQueen  Gray  of  the  University  of  New  Mexico,  issued  as  a  bulletin  of 
that  university,  entitled  "How  the  Curriculum  of  the  Secondary  Schools 
Might  be  Reconstructed."  Aside  from  its  direct  bearings,  I  recommend 
that  paper  to  every  teacher  for  its  exposition  of  the  nature  of  a  good 
examination.  Of  one  thing  we  may  be  sure:  the  disrepute  into  which 
all  examinations  have  fallen  among  the  American  people  is  the  result  of 
the  fact  that  most  of  the  examinations  within  their  experience  have  not 
had  the  characteristics  of  a  good  examination.  As  with  everything  else, 
the  worth  of  an  examination  depends  upon  its  quality. 


AFFILIATION  379 

successfully  exact,  and  it  is  far  more  than  they  now  get.  By 
attending  to  too  many  things,  they  are  missing  the  things  most 
essential  to  their  own  primary  responsibility — upon  which  even 
the  higher  developments  of  their  great  enterprises  rest. 

The  system  of  inspection  and  affiliation,  with  all  its  alluring 
and  noble  possibilities,  will  survive  only  through  genuine  useful- 
ness. And  it  can  become  genuinely  useful  only  if  the  universities 
maintain  a  temperate  and  high-minded  self-restraint. 

The  university  should  offer  counsel  upon  any  subject  whenever 
it  has  ripened  counsel  to  offer;  but  in  the  matter  of  requirements 
for  admission  it  ought  to  restrain  itself  to  a  demand  for  good 
quality  in  the  results  of  a  few  studies.  And  that  demand  must 
leave  perfectly  free  a  considerable  margin  of  time  for  such  appli- 
cation as  the  individual  high  school  may  deem  best.  For  the 
marginal  part  of  the  pupiFs  time,  the  university  need  feel  no 
responsible  concern.  There  ought  to  be  no  running  to  the  uni- 
versity for  "recognition"  of  this  or  that  vocational  instruction, 
manual  training,  or  exercises  in  physical  culture.  Let  the  high 
school  do  all  this,  let  the  university  give  all  good  advice  about  it 
than  it  can  command;  but  separate  such  matters  from  university 
regulation. 

If  the  university  were  attending  directly  to  its  own  affair  of 
entrance  requirements,  it  would  choose  a  rational  range  of  sub- 
jects in  which  examination  for  admission  would  be  acceptable. 
The  sole  purpose  would  be  to  insure  ability  to  profit  from  instruc- 
tion offered  in  the  university.  Nothing  else  needs  to  be  or  ought 
to  be  considered.  The  same  subjects  would  be  enough  to  legislate 
about  in  co-operation  with  affiliated  schools,  in  order  to  admit 
their  graduates  without  examination.  It  ought  to  have  been 
known  in  advance,  but  experience  has  demonstrated  that  to  attempt 
more  is  to  secure  less. 

I  shall  say  little  about  the  shortcomings  or  duties  of  the  high 
schools  because  little  that  bears  upon  the  present  subject  needs 


380 

to  be  said.*  That  the  results  of  our  educational  activities  at 
every  stage  are  a  mixture  of  good  and  evil,  is  to  say  no  more  than 
that  those  activities  are  social  undertakings.  The  achievement 
of  an  individual**  mind  and  character  may  in  rare  instances 
approximate  perfection;  but  no  social  undertaking  has  ever  at- 
tained any  such  result.  That  secondary  schools  may  just  now 
be  guilty  of  extraordinary  shortcomings  is  merely  the  consequence 
of  the  extraordinary  difficulties  and  disturbances  that  have  beset 
them  during  recent  years.  Such  is  the  point  of  view  of  every 
sympathetic  critic,  and  every  critic  ought  to  be  sympathetic.  On 
the  other  hand,  high  school  teachers  and  administrators  might  well 
take  for  the  text  of  a  profitable  self-examination  Coventry  Pat- 
more's  loving  reproach  to  womankind: 

"Ah!    wasteful  woman!     .     .     . 

How  lias  she  cheapened  paradise; 

How  spoiled  the  bread  and  spilled  the  wine, 

Which  spent  with  due  respective  thrift 

Had  made  brutes  men  and  men  divine." 

It  may  be  assumed,  then,  that  there  is  room  for  infinite  improve- 
ment in  both  ideas  and  execution;  but  much  improvement  would 
follow  the  establishment  of  a  proper  relation  with  the  universities. 
All  questions  could  then  be  considered  upon  their  merits.  There 
would  be  no  more  bungling  attempts  to  stretch  out  this  and  lop 
off  that  in  order  to  make  the  same  "unit'*  of  each.  The  very  men 
who  have  proved  themselves  such  poor  legislators  would  often  be 


*The  high  schools  have,  in  their  turn,  injuriously  coerced  the  elemen- 
tary schools,  thus — after  a  fashion  as  ancient  as  it  is  craven — passing 
on  to  subordinates  unjust  treatment  suffered  from  superiors.  See  Note 
on  Elementary  Schools,  at  end  of  this  chapter. 

**It  may  be  well  to  explain  that  I  refer  to  individuals  who  have  been 
guided  and  helped  and  supported  by  the  wisdom  of  the  ages;  and  that, 
in  my  opinion,  the  modern  reforming  individualism  which  sets  up  the 
dicta  of  isolated  specialists  ignorant  and  defiant  of  the  consensus  sapien- 
tium,  never  has  reached  and  never  can  achieve  just  conclusions  in  any 
matter  of  fundamental  or  broad  import. 


THE   NEED   FOR   LATITUDE  381 

good  advisers.  Certain  it  is  that  much  of  the  teaching  under 
prevalent  arrangements  is  as  loose  and  long  drawn  out  as  if  the 
main  purpose  were  to  consumse  time. 

Subjects  of  study  and  allotments  of  time,  best  for  one  school, 
do  not  suit  another.  Vital  organisms  and  quasi  organisms  such 
as  social  institutions  have  but  one  known  way  of  improvement — 
by  spontaneous  variations  and  the  selection  of  the  fittest.  Uni- 
formity means  deterioration,  and  it  is  possible  only  under  arbi- 
trary control. 

The  situation  of  the  secondary  schools  at  the  present  time  is 
such  that  it  seems  to  me  of  peculiar,  I  may  say  vital  importance 
that  they  be  set  free  to  adjust  themselves  to  a  changing  order. 
If  the  bonds  are  not  speedily  loosed,  they  will  be  burst  with 
reactionary  violence. 

In  the  relation  of  seekers  and  givers  of  counsel,  the  high  schools 
and  universities  could  find  safe  courses  of  action ;  but  there  is  an 
especial  importance  in  the  present  circumstances  that  every  law 
or  requirement  should  be  framed  to  allow  the  greatest  latitude 
consistent  with  efficiency.  Let  any  man  argue  for  his  opinion 
that  it  is  a  mistake  to  study  more  than  four  subjects  in  one  year, 
but  let  him  not  dare  to  enforce  that  opinion  by  an  arbitrary 
requirement.  Perhaps  it  may  be  discovered  that  there  is  no  way 
to  meet  modern  needs  without  sacrificing  paramount  interests  of 
the  individual  and  society,  except  by  carrying  five  "unit"  subjects 
in  some  year,  or  by  giving  even  only  one  class-room  hour  a  week 
to  some  supplemental  subject.  Whatever  experience  with  free 
variations  may  prove  to  be  best,  we  may  be  sure  that  it  is  a  mis- 
take to  give  the  same  time  to  every  subject.  A  clear  mind  would 
deem  it  very  extraordinary  if  it  should  not  prove  to  be  better  to 
give  five  periods  a  week  to  some  subjects,  four  to  another,  three 
to  another,  and  so  on.  It  is  almost  unthinkable  to  a  disciplined 
mind  that  the  same  time  for  all  could  be  best.  It  is  at  least  an 
obvious  fact  that  in  some  schools  classes  do  more  and  better  work 
in  three  periods  a  week  than  is  done  in  others  in  five;  or  more 


382  CORROBORATIVE  OPINIONS 

and  better  in  one  year  than  results  elsewhere  in  two  years.  Let 
us  get  away  from  the  idea  that  school  work  can  be  measured 
by  the  clock. 

But  the  important  thing  is  for  the  universities  to  get  it  out  of 
their  heads  that  it  is  incumbent  upon  them  to  legislate  on  such 
questions.  Let  them  inspect  and  test  results  to  their  satisfaction, 
and  more  keenly  than  they  do;  but  let  them  forego  the  dictation 
of  programs. 

The  fundamental  principles  to  which  I  have  appealed  in  these 
remarks  stand  on  so  wide  a  basis  of  human  history  and  are  so 
open  to  the  experience  or  observation  of  all  men,  that  it  is  almost 
superfluous  to  cite  concurrent  judgments.  But  it  may  help  some 
who  do  not  think  independently,  to  mention  that  the  Report  of 
the  Committee  of  Nine  on  the  Articulation  of  High  School  and 
College,  presented  in  July,  1911,  to  the  Xational  Education  Asso- 
ciation, has,  as  the  gist  of  it,  protests  and  recommendations  such 
as  I  have  suggested.  The  report  does  not  deal  much  with  the 
underlying  principles,  but  its  specific  complaints  and  its  most 
important  demands  are  corollaries  of  what  I  have  set  forth.  A  few 
quotations  will  sufficiently  show  this: 

"As  an  illustration  of  the  confusion  in  the  requirements  of  different 
colleges,  one  requires  one  foreign  language,  counts  work  in  a  second, 
gives  no  credit  for  a  third;  another  requires  two  foreign  languages  and 
one  unit  in  a  third,  unless  music  or  physics  is  presented  as  a  substitute; 
and  a  third  absolutely  requires  three  foreign  languages." 

"By  following  the  usual  college  prescription,  the  best  preparation  for 
college  is  not  secured." 

"A  course  that  is  good  in  one  high  school  may  not  be  suited  to  another. 
Uniformity  in  this  subject  is  utterly  disastrous." 

"Quantity  should  be  subordinated  to  quality." 

Speaking  of  the  minimum  that  high  schools  should  themselves  exact  of 
a  graduate,  the  committee  is  of  the  opinion  that  "the  quantitative  require- 
ment should  be  fifteen  units."  But  the  committee  demands  that  the  uni- 
versity must  not  require  or  supervise  more  than  "eleven  units"  out  of 
the  high  school's  fifteen  for  any  one  course  of  study.  Also,  the  com- 


CORROBORATIVE   OPINIONS  383 

mittee's  "unit"  represents  the  requirement  of  not  less  than  four  periods 
a  week. 

"That  the  subjects  from  which  the  margin  (i.  e.,  beyond  the  eleven 
units  subject  to  university  requirements)  may  be  made  up  should  be 
left  entirely  unspecified,  appears  to  be  vital  to  the  progressive  develop- 
ment of  secondary  education." 

"As  long  as  formal  recognition  must  be  sought  for  each  new  subject, 
so  long  will  the  high  school  be  subservient  and  not  fully  progressive.  It 
ought  to  be  possible  for  any  high  school  at  any  time  to  introduce  a  sub- 
ject that  either  meets  the  peculiar  needs  of  the  community  or  that  appears 
to  be  the  most  appropriate  vehicle  for  teachers  of  pronounced  individ- 
uality." 

The  gist  of  these  demands  of  the  National  Education  Asso- 
ciation is  that  the  high  schools  should  themselves  require  a  mini- 
mum of  fifteen  units  for  graduation,  and  that  the  universities 
should  exact  results  of  good  quality  in  eleven  units  of  each  grad- 
uate's course  of  study,  leaving  all  work  in  excess  of  eleven  units 
entirely  free  for  such  application  as  the  high  school  may  deem 
best  to  require  or  permit.  The  "unit"'  chosen  consisted  of  not 
less  than  four  periods  a  week.  It  would  be  far  better  to  allow  at 
least  some  portion  of  the  required  units  to  consist  of  three  periods- 
a  week. 

Such  a  program,  in  all  its  bearings  upon  a  proper  relation  to 
universities,  is  harmonious  with  my  counsel.  The  universities 
would  be  free  to  exact  good  preparation  in  a  few  subjects  and  to 
leave  the  high  schools  free  to  use  upwards  of  one-fourth  of  their 
time  on  instruction  useful  for  its  proper  purposes  but  not  signifi- 
cant as  preparation  for  genuine  university  work.  Such  subjects 
the  universities  ought  not  to  attempt  to  control,  either  as  to  what 
they  may  be  or  as  to  how  many  hours  may  be  devoted  to  them. 
In  regard  to  the  self-imposed  requirements  of  high  schools,  there 
may  be  the  difference  that  I  advise  against  whole  "units"  for  some 
things  offered  by  the  high  schools.  Especially  the  margin  beyond 
the  university's  requirements  should  be  free  for  determination  by 
each  high  school.  Such,  indeed,  may  have  been  the  intention  of 
the  committee;  but  their  plan  might  be  understood  to  mean  that 


384  CONSEQUENCES  OF  PROPER  RELATIONS 

the  free  margin  of  four  or  more  units  should  be  filled  by  full 
units  or  certain  recognized  fractions. 

I  know  it  will  be  no  easy  undertaking  to  induce  a  faculty, 
especially  of  any  state  university,  to  revoke  its  present  arbitrary 
laws  for  ruling  secondary  schools  and  fixing  entrance  require- 
ments— or  to  abolish  some  similar  enactments  among  the  regu- 
lations for  administering  its  own  curricula.  One  entering  upon 
the  undertaking  might  well  plead  with  the  petty  dictators  in  the 
words  of  Cromwell  to  the  Scotch  divines :  "I  beseech  you  in  the 
bowels  of  Christ,  think  it  possible  that  ye  may  be  mistaken."  The 
main  resistance  might  be  found  in  the  multifarious  departments 
of  pedagogy,  the  very  quarter  whence  the  strongest  support  ought 
to  be  forthcoming;  for  the  narrowness  of  specialization  in  recent 
times,  together  with  other  causes,  has  developed  even  professors 
of  education  who  are  as  uneducated  as  they  are  precipitate  to 
impose  their  fragmentary  ideas  by  force  of  law.  The  one-sided 
specialists  in  all  departments  are  prone  to  agree  with  the  demands 
of  any  set  of  proclaimed  experts,  and  even  if  all  such  men  and 
women  taken  together  do  not  make  a  majority,  the  prevailing 
organization  of  our  universities  has  so  discouraged  the  better  edu- 
cated and  wiser  members  that  it  will  not  be  easy  to  secure  due 
attention  to  the  matter. 

A  few  concluding  words  will  indicate  my  conception  of  the 
potential  consequences  of  establishing  a  proper  relation  between 
universities  and  high  schools. 

Let  us  accept  our  American  plan  of  advancing  to  a  higher 
institution  after  the  stage  fixed  by  graduation  from  standard  high 
schools,  and  of  uniting  in  one  student  body  the  undergraduate  and 
post-graduate  students  of  our  typical  university,  as  probably  more 
suitable  to  our  needs  and  spirit  than  the  German  plan. 

If  our  universities  will  give  up  all  attempt  to  rule  the  secondary 
schools  beyoLd  intrinsically  necessary  requirements  for  admission, 
and  will  faithfully  accept  the  high  calling  of  guide,  counsellor,  and 
friend,  the  affiliated  secondary  schools  would  respond  loyally,  and 


VISITORS    OF   SCHOOLS  385 

the  unaffiliated  would  sincerely  seek  to  qualify  themselves  to 
enjoy  such  helpful  relations.  And  wise  decisions  concerning  prin- 
ciples and  expediencies  would  generally  be  reached,  if  the  uni- 
versities will  recognize  the  prime  necessity  of  choosing  thoroughly 
competent  visitors  of  schools.* 

Advice,  as  I  have  said,  is  better  not  given  unless  it  be  wise 
advice.  To  take  upon  oneself  the  office  of  a  counsellor  is  no  light 
responsibility.  In  some  States  universities  have  appointed  to  be 
the  mouthpiece  of  their  advice  a  visitor  apparently  chosen  for  his 
popularity  with  school  men  of  the  political  sort,  or  because  he 
was  a  '"good  mixer."  That  is  done,  if  the  truth  should  be  spoken, 
simply  because  the  authorities  have  not  been  sensible  of  the  respon- 
sibility to  give  good  counsel  when  advice  is  voluntarily  offered, 
and  they  have  wanted  a  "drummer"  for  the  university.  The  itch 
for  numbers  is  a  disease  that  noble  educational  institutions  need 
today  to  be  especially  upon  their  guard  against. 

It  is  worse  than  an  impertinence  to  offer  an  incompetent  adviser. 
I  believe  a  university  ought  to  seek  more  conscientiously  for  excel- 
lent qualifications  in  its  visitor  of  schools  than  in  any  other  of  its 
agents  and  representatives.  Experience,  sound  scholarship,  ripened 
judgment,  and  a  detached  open-minded  attitude  toward  all  intel- 
lectual questions,  are  the  essential  qualifications.  The  "good 
mixer"  is  seldom  a  good  adviser,  simply  because  he  is  so  fre- 
quently a  flatterer;  and  a  flatterer  is  an  enemy — according  to 


'President  Craighead,  in  the  able  discussion  quoted  on  page  78,  pointed 
out  the  same  need  on  the  part  of  the  American  Medical  Association  in 
recognizing  medical  schools:  "It  is  easy  to  have  high  entrance  require- 
ments and  comprehensive  courses  of  study  on  paper.  Many  a  backwoods 
college  without  endowment,  without  libraries  and  laboratories,  without 
even  learned  teachers,  has  sent  out  in  catalogues  courses  of  study  as 
comprehensive  as  were  ever  offered  at  Harvard  or  at  the  University  of 
Virginia.  This  council  will  never  know  what  the  colleges  of  this  country 
are  doing  either  to  enforce  standards  or  to  exact  adequate  entrance  prep- 
aration until  it  is  able  to  send  out  competent  and  impartial  experts  to 
make  a  thorough  examination  of  the  schools." 


386  NOTE   ON    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS 

Tacitus,  an  enemy  of  the  worst  kind — pessimum  genus  inimicorum 
laudantes. 

In  regard  to  state  educational  systems,  all  parts,  from  the  ele- 
mentary schools  to  the  State  University,  ought  to  co-operate  as 
organs  of  a  vital  system.  The  worst  affliction  that  could  befall  the 
entire  system  is  paralysis  or  derangement  at  the  top.  The  men 
who  claim  to  champion  the  "common  schools"  in  their  opposition 
to  higher  education,  if  sincere,  do  not  understand  the  matters  they 
talk  about.  The  truth  is,  that  no  part  of  any  system  of  education 
can  be  healthfully  independent  of  other  parts.  From  the  lowest 
"grade"  to  the  arena  of  adult  life,  the  exit  from  one  stage  should 
be  an  entrance  to  the  next.  No  matter  where  an  individual  may 
leave  the  system's  tutelage,  at  every  terminus  there  is  need  for 
an  index  pointing  upward.  It  is  no  argument  against  the  mainte- 
nance of  high  schools  or  of  universities,  that  comparatively  small 
numbers  reach  those  stages.  Besides  the  necessity  of  an  incentive 
to  something  beyond,  nothing  could  be  more  blind  than  to  suppose 
that  only  those  who  attend  a  school  are  benefited  by  that  school. 
All  higher  education,  or  anything  that  leads  thereto,  is  of  incal- 
culable worth  to  society  at  large  in  countless  ways  which  will 
suggest  themselves  to  anyone  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  think 
on  the  subject.  Water  runs  down  hill;  yet  the  earth  were 
sterile  if  water  did  not  ascend  to  the  sky.  But  men  are 
prone  to  praise  only  the  descending  rain  and  the  powerful 
down-flowing  streams.  And  in  the  flow  of  life,  the  majority  seem 
able  to  see  only  the  results  as  life  spends  itself  in  downward- 
streaming  activities  of  work  and  enjoyment,  and  are  blind  to  the 
need  of  ascending  thought  and  emotion.  Yet  from  that  ascent 
comes  the  force  and  meaning  and  worth  of  life. 

NOTE  ON  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS 

The  standard  public  school  course  of  study  in  these  United  States  is 
still  commonly  supposed  to  require  eight  years  ("grades")  of  elementary 
school  and  four  years  of  high  school.  Some  schools,  all  over  the  country, 


NOTE   ON    ELEMENTARY   SCHOOLS  387 

finding  it  difficult  to  occupy  pupils  for  eight  years  with  the  elementary 
course,  have  reduced  the  number  of  grades  to  seven;  but  generally  this 
half-way  correction  seems  to  be  made  with  trepidation  or  apologies.  (The 
school  system  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  is,  I  believe,  the  only  large  public 
school  system  in  the  United  States  that  never  yielded  to  the  eight-years 
fashion.)  As  a  technical  problem  the  question  is  of  unsurpassed  impor- 
tance to  teachers  and  administrators  of  schools;  but  it  is  also  of  such 
vital  importance  to  every  parent  and  every  child,  that  any  competent 
discussion  or  experience  bearing  upon  it  should  be  considered  with  lively 
interest  by  men  of  all  vocations.  It  is  important  that  all  educational 
institutions,  high  and  low,  should  understand  a  matter  which  is  so  funda- 
mental. 

The  plan  of  spreading  the  combined  elementary  school  and  high  school 
courses  over  twelve  years  never  developed  from  experienced  needs,  but  it 
was  foisted  upon  American  schools  in  an  attempt  to  imitate  a  misunder- 
stood pattern.  It  could  be  proved  historically  that  the  twelve  years  plan 
(which  required  eight  years  to  precede  a  four-years  high  school),  so  pre- 
cipitately adopted  and  so  injuriously  practiced  in  the  United  States,  was 
based  upon  the  three  years  of  the  German  vorshule  and  the  nine  years 
of  the  German  gymnasium.  Three  plus  nine  does  make  twelve;  but  eager 
designers  of  educational  fashions  failed  to  observe  that  the  German 
gymnasium  does  not  correspond  to  the  American  high  school,  but  takes 
the  student  to  the  point  of  the  Standard  B.  A.  degree  of  American  col- 
leges, or  well  into  the  stage  of  the  senior  class  of  the  best  American 
college.  Also,  the  three  years  of  the  vorshule  and  first  three  years  of 
gymnasium  conduct  the  pupils  somewhat  beyond  the  eighth  grade  in 
American  systems.  The  progress  of  a  pupil  is  not  rapid  when  prepared 
in  six  years  to  enter  the  first-year  class  of  a  standard  high  school. 

Be  it  understood,  therefore,  that  a  ten  years  course  to  college  entrance 
makes  concession  to  the  fact  that  the  States  of  this  nation  undertake  to 
discharge  their  function  of  public  education  through  teachers  the  rank 
and  file  of  whom  are  sunk  economically  below  the  better  sort  of  manual 
laborers.  If  the  economic  basis  were  raised  to  command  an  equivalent 
of  the  undergraduate  college  course  to  qualify  a  teacher  in  elementary 
schools  and  an  equivalent  of  several  years  of  post-graduate  work  for  high 
school  positions,  and  to  supply  a  suitable  number  of  such  teachers,  we 
could  do  in  America  as  well  as  is  done  in  Germany, — which  would  mean 
nine  years  to  pass  the  stage  of  the  best  American  high  schools. 

Let  no  one  suppose  that  I,  or  any  well  informed  opponent  of  the  twelve- 


388  NOTE    ON    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS 

years  course,  condemn  it  merely  from  a  desire  to  increase  the  number  of 
those  who  could  seek  higher  education.  That  will  take  care  of  itself. 
The  immediate  effect  upon  the  children  during  the  time  covered  is  the 
main  point  of  interest  and  responsibility,  and  it  is  the  main  point  of  my 
argument.  Our  counsel  is  that  all  that  is  attempted  in  the  eight  years 
of  elementary  school  courses — whether  well  or  poorly  accomplished  in  a 
particular  system, — would  be  better  accomplished  by  the  same  teachers 
in  six  years;  and  that  four  years  is  ample  for  the  standard  American 
high  school.  We  accept  the  line  of  demarkation  fixed  by  standard  college 
entrance.  Of  course,  if  the  American  university  were  to  cut  out  all 
except  what  we  call  post-graduate  work,  either  separate  colleges  would 
have  to  fill  the  gap,  or  high  schools  and  colleges  be  united  in  one  new 
institution  covering  seven  or  eight  years.  For  my  part,  I  deem  the 
American  plan  of  advancing  to  a  higher  institution  after  our  high  school 
stage  better  adapted  to  our  needs  and  spirit  than  any  alternative;  and 
I  believe  preponderance  of  advantage  is  in  the  union  of  undergraduate 
and  post-graduate  students  in  one  student  body. 

Isolated  corrections  of  the  eight-grades  mistake  have  been  made  during 
the  last  twenty  years  in  perhaps  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  acceler- 
ated results  may  be  hoped  for  in  the  future;  but  the  slowness  with  which 
protests  against  consuming  eight  years  in  the  studies  of  the  elementary 
school  gained  a  hearing,  was  discouraging.  For  nearly  ten  years  follow- 
ing 1890  I  saw  no  progress  beyond  the  narrow  reach  of  my  own  influence. 
One  notable  advantage  was,  indeed,  gained  between  1894  and  1899  as  far 
as  Texas  was  concerned;  for  during  that  period  the  University  of  Texas 
ceased  to  advise  a  twelve-years  course, — thus  having  the  distinction,  I 
believe,  of  being  the  first  institution  of  its  class  to  drop  that  off-hand 
prescription.  Called  from  a  school  superintendency  (where  in  1892  I  had 
put  in  six  grades  all  and  more  than  all  of  an  elementary  school  course 
whose  attenuated  form  had  been  stretched  over  eight  years)  to  the  faculty 
of  the  University  of  Texas  in  1894,  I  continued  there  observations  bearing 
upon  the  question,  especially  because  that  year,  at  the  meeting  of  the 
State  Teachers'  Association,  two  representatives  of  the  University  had 
presented  papers  entitled  "A  Plea  for  a  Uniform  Twelve- Years  Course." 
For  five  years  1  inquired  of  every  student  who  entered  the  university 
how  many  years  he  had  previously  attended  school.  Only  one  was  found 
who  had  been  in  school  twelve  years,  and  it  was  discovered  afterwards 
that  she  had  included  two  years  spent  in  a  kindergarten.  Only  a  few  had 
been  in  school  as  much  as  ten  years.  The  length  of  previous  schooling 


NOTE   ON    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS  389 

was  probably  less  at  that  time  for  the  University  of  Texas  than  for 
eastern  universities;  but  I  am  sure  very  few  students  have  ever  entered 
American  colleges  after  twelve  years  of  preparatory  schooling.  Note  that 
this  is  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  standard  public  schools  all  over  the 
country  have  all  the  while  maintained  twelve-years  courses.  Such  facts 
and  the  intrinsic  merits  of  the  question  were  submitted  to  members  of 
the  faculty,  and  I  have  not  since  heard  any  representative  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Texas  pleading  for  twelve  years  of  preparation. 

In  1899  it  was  my  privilege  to  organize  an  especially  interesting  system 
of  schools,  and  again  to  prove  by  experience  that  all  that  is  attempted  in 
twelve-years  courses  is  easily  accomplished  in  ten  years.  And  the  next 
year  I  was  rejoiced  to  hear  a  powerful  voice,  one  of  those  whose  "line  is 
gone  out  through  all  the  earth  and  their  words  to  the  end  of  the  world," 
raised  in  challenge  of  the  inordinate  length  of  time  allotted  to  the  course 
of  study  in  American  public  schools;  for  in  May,  1900,  Hugh  Muenster- 
berg,  head  of  the  philosophical  department  of  Harvard  University,  pub- 
lished an  incisive  discussion  of  the  question.  He  showed  beyond  candid 
dispute,  that  "in  Germany  the  level  of  American  high  school  graduation 
is  attained  at  fifteen."  Alas,  why  is  it  that  so  many  ears  have  been 
deaf  to  his  eloquent  conclusion:  "Those  years  which  every  American  boy 
loses  represent  a  loss  for  practical  achievement  in  later  life,  which  cannot 
be  compensated  for  by  an  early  beginning  of  professional  training.  It  is 
a  loss  to  the  man  and  an  incomparable  loss  to  the  nation." 

For  the  last  ten  years,  besides  some  school  superintendents,  some  of 
the  most  competent  university  presidents  have  understood  this  question 
and  several  of  them  have  been  urgently  advising  the  needed  correction. 
Of  these  none  has  been  clearer  or  more  forcible  than  Presidnt  A.  R.  Hill. 
At  the  meeting  of  the  National  Association  of  State  Universities  in  1911, 
he,  as  a  member  of  the  committee  on  reorganization  of  education,  brought 
up  the  subject  of  "such  a  reorganization  of  the  curricula  of  our  elemen- 
tary and  secondary  schools  and  such  a  readjustment  of  our  college  entrance 
requirements  as  will  enable  students  to  enter  college,  and  thus  eventually 
to  receive  their  baccalaureate  degrees,  a.t  an  earlier  age  than  is  now  pos- 
sible." President  Hill  said,  in  part: 

"I  have  not  been  authorized  to  speak  for  the  committee,  but  have  had 
some  correspondence  with  the  chairman  [President  W.  L.  Bryan]  and  with 
President  Baker.  .  .  .  The  opinion  of  the  committee  as  a  whole  I  am 
not  in  a  position  to  state.  President  Baker's  paper,  presented  at  the 


390  NOTE    ON   ELEMENTARY   SCHOOLS 

National  Education  Association  meeting  last  summer,  has  been  read  by 
members  of  the  committee,  and,  perhaps,  by  other  members  of  this  asso- 
ciation; and  I  wish  to  say,  as  one  member  of  the  committee,  that  I  think 
the  topic  one  worthy  of  consideration  by  the  association,  and  that,  on 
the  whole,  I  agree  with  President  Baker.  I  want  particularly  to  say  just 
a  word  on  one  point.  ...  I  think  that  President  Baker  is  correct  in 
believing  that  the  college  age  should  be  from  sixteen  to  twenty,  instead 
of  from  eighteen  to  twenty-two,  and  that  something  ought  to  be  done  in 
the  development  of  our  educational  system  that  will  make  it  possible  to 
obtain  a  B.  A.  degree  earlier,  so  that  the  student's  general  culture  may  be 
completed  without  delaying  too  long  the  period  of  professional  preparation 
for  his  life  work. 

"The  point  that  he  has  emphasized  is  the  waste  of  time  in  the  elemen- 
tary school.  I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that  about  two  years  are  wasted, 
and  that  we  could  accomplish  as  much  in  six  years  as  we  now  do  in  eight. 
Students  could  thus  enter  the  university  at  sixteen;  or,  with  the  exten- 
sion of  the  period  of  secondary  education  by  two  years  thus  made  possible, 
they  might  enter  at  the  present  age  and  the  state  university  could  build 
upon  a  substantial  basis  of  general  culture. 

"Take  the  situation  in  New  York  state  as  an  illustration.  I  will  take 
an  extreme  case.  In  one  city,  they  covered  in  six  years  what  we  would 
ordinarily  suppose  to  be  the  work  of  the  elementary  school  grades.  Dur- 
ing the  seventh  and  eighth  years  the  pupils  were  introduced  to  new  text- 
books covering  the  same  ground  they  had  already  covered.  .  .  .  There 
was  virtually  nothing  new  in  the  last  two  years  of  the  elementary  cur- 
riculum. ...  In  the  elementary  school  conducted  by  our  school  of 
education,  we  have  been  carrying  on  in  seven  grades  all  the  work  that 
is  usually  done  in  eight.  I  am  convinced  that,  as  soon  as  we  can  get 
that  school  thoroughly  organized,  the  same  work  can  be  done  in  six  years. 
As  it  is,  in  the  seven  years  the  pupils  are  abundantly  fitted  for  high 
school  work. 

"Now,  if  that  can  be  done,  why  retain  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades? 
If  two  years  can  be  saved  in  the  elementary  schools,  students  could  enter 
the  university  two  years  earlier  than  now,  or,  if  secondary  education  be 
extended  accordingly,  we  could  receive  students  into  the  universities  at 
eighteen  years  of  age,  two  years  further  advanced  in  their  work  than 
they  are  now  at  the  time  of  matriculation." 

It  has  been  a  strange  (although  foreseeable,  and  predicted  by  me  ten 
years  before  it  came  to  pass)  misunderstanding  which  has  led  some  men 


NOTE    ON   ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS  391 

to  declare  that  the  college  course  of  four  years  must  be  diminished  by 
half.  President  Butler  is  the  most  eminent  doctor  who  has  offered  this 
strange  prescription.  For  how  would  diminution  of  college  courses  help 
the  boys  who  rightly  spurn  the  emptiness  of  the  elementary  schools  and 
never  reach  even  the  high  schools?  Also,  if  two  years  be  saved  at  the 
stage  where  they  are  worse  than  wasted,  what  need  for  lopping  off  at  the 
top?  Men  in  real  conning  towers  for  the  steering  of  the  vessels  given 
into  their  hands  would  see  such  things  in  their  true  bearings.  President 
Butler  argues  that  men  should  not  spend  twelve  years  to  pass  the  high 
school,  four  more  in  college,  and  three  or  four  more  in  study  of  a  spe- 
cialty; that  such  a  course  requires  a  man  to  be  twenty-six  to  twenty-eight 
years  old  before  remunerative  work  is  begun;  and  that  modern  demands 
on  life  will  necessitate  a  change.  All  these  arguments  are  valid  and  the 
intended  conclusion  would  be  just,  if  the  assumed  premise  were  true;  but 
the  premise  denies  the  two  main  facts :  ( 1 )  Twelve  years  is  not  needed 
for  and  cannot  be  profitably  spent  on  our  elementary  and  high  school 
courses,  and  (2)  of  all  persons  who  have  entered  American  college®  very 
few,  comparatively,  have  spent  twelve  years  preparing  to  do  so. 

Desirable  statistics  on  this  subject  have  never  been  compiled.  The 
average  age  of  freshmen  proves  part  of  the  truth,  but  does  not  show 
enough  because  a  large  number  of  young  men  and  women  go  to  college 
after  some  years  of  working  to  save  money  or  other  interruption  of 
continuous  schooling.  If  the  associations  of  universities  or  the  Carnegie 
Foundation  or  the  General  Education  Board  would  gather  statistics  on 
the  following  points  and  certify  the  facts  to  administrators  of  public 
schools,  valuable  service  would  be  rendered: 

(1)  In  colleges,  find  average  number  of  years  spent  in  school   (exclu- 
sive  of    kindergarten)    previous   to   college   entrance;    and   also,   the  per- 
centage  of   students   coming   from   public   high   schools.      (As   no   private 
schools  have  preparatory  courses  of  twelve  years,  it  would  be  significant 
to  find  their  share  in  the  body  of  youth  who  seek  education  beyond  the 
high   school    stage. ) 

(2)  In  public  high  schools,  find  the  average  number  of  years  in  school 
previous  to  entering  the  fourth-year  class  of  the  high  school. 

I  commend  the  last  investigation  to  every  school  superintendent  in  the 
case  of  his  own  high  school.  It  would  illuminate  his  view  to  find  out  how 
few  survive  his  system,  and  to  note  that  it  is  chiefly  those  who  somehow 
skip  his  "grades"  that  get  through  at  all. 

I   beg  all    readers   to   reflect,   also,   upon   the  consequences   of    retaining 


392  NOTE   ON    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS 

pupils  for  more  than  one  year  in  the  same  grade  of  a  twelve-year  course. 
Legitimate  reasons  often  require  such  delays,  but  foolish  practices  con- 
cerning "promotions"  make  such  an  accident  at  some  stage  of  the  course 
rather  the  rule  than  the  exception.  Think  of  what  it  means  to  stretch 
out  your  eight  years  of  elementary  school  to  nine  or  ten  years.  Boys 
are  doomed  when  that  befalls  them.  Beards  begin  to  grow  before  they 
escape  from  a  tutelage  weak  and  meager  for  little  girls,  often  four  years 
younger,  who  have  skipped  a  grade  or  two.  The  boys  are  right  in  leaving 
such  schools. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  inner  workings  of  a  twelve-years 
course.  Subsequent  effects,  as  I  have  said,  may  be  left  to  take  care  of 
themselves.  If  we  do  what  is  best  for  the  children  for  the  time  being, 
that  will  include  a  proper  preparation  for  future  opportunities. 

The  last  two  or  three  years  of  the  usual  eight  years  of  elementary 
school  present  the  most  troublesome  problems  to  both  the  teachers  and 
the  administrators  of  American  public  schools.  It  is  mainly  in  the 
seventh  and  eighth  grades,  and  not  in  the  high  school,  (as  is  frequently 
alleged  by  those  who  have  not  investigated  the  facts ) ,  that  our  boys  take 
a  disgust  for  studies  and  an  undue  proportion  of  them  leave  school.  The 
almost  insensible  progress  is  stultifying  as  well  as  discouraging.  It  is 
more  tiresome  to  mark  time  than  to  step  out  along  the  pathway.  It  is 
hard,  also,  to  make  an  empty  bag  stand  upright.  No  statistics  can  make 
the  truth  clearer  than  it  has  always  been,  but  certain  investigations  of 
the  Society  of  Educational  Research  should  help  reform  by  placing  facts 
beyond  the  sphere  of  individual  insight.  For  instance,  some  of  the  inves- 
tigations referred  to  have  proved  that  children  who  have  completed  a 
course  in  arithmetic  in  three  or  four  years  stand  identically  the  same 
examinations  better  than  children  who  have  been  kept  "studying"  the 
same  matter  for  six  or  seven  years.  It  is  hard  to  understand  how 
experienced  teachers  can  fail  to  see  the  truth  for  themselves;  but  it  is 
a  fact,  howsoever  long  it  may  be  before  all  eyes  are  opened  to  it,  that 
pupils  cannot  spend  on  ordinary  text-books  the  time  usually  spent  upon 
them,  without  impairing  their  powers  in  every  direction  besides  failing 
to  learn  the  particular  subject-matter.  If  the  same  matter  were  studied 
at  suitable  stages  with  reasonable  dispatch,  it  would  be  mastered  as  far 
as  possible  for  their  stage  of  mental  development. 

Little  condensation  would  be  required  for  the  first  four  grades.  All 
that  is  needed — speaking  approximately — is  to  assign  the  work  put  down 
for  fifth  and  sixth  years  to  the  fifth  year,  and  that  set  down  for  the 


NOTE   ON    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS  393 

seventh  and  eighth,  to  the  sixth.  It  is  the  easiest,  as  well  as  the  most 
needed,  school  reform. 

An  alternative  for  consuming'  the  same  time  may  be  glanced  at,  because 
a  few  floundering  school  superintendents  have  proposed  (and  several  have 
instituted)  a  twelve-years  course  with  elementary  school  covered  in  seven 
years  and  a  five-years  high  school.  Even  the  ghost  of  the  twelve-years 
rule  is  potent!  I  believe  we  may  dismiss  the  proposal  to  spend  five  years 
instead  of  four  on  present  standard  high  school  courses  as  an  innovation 
not  likely  to  win  imitators. 

No  peculiar  advantage  or  skill  explains  the  success  in  completing  in  six 
years  standard  elementary  courses  wherever  the  plan  has  been  intelligently 
tried.  Everywhere  all  that  is  attempted  in  the  seven  or  eight  years 
would  be  better  accomplished,  by  the  same  teachers,  in  six  years.  There 
are,  however,  some  points  of  school  management  which  bear  especially  on 
this  question,  and  I  will  briefly  indicate  six  such  points: 

1.  The    strongest   and    most   scholarly    (and   therefore   the   best   paid) 
teachers  in  elementary  schools  ought  to  teach  the  last  two  grades.     Only 
one  critical  point  seems  generally  recognized — the  first  grade.     The  impor- 
tance of  the  initial  stage  is  indeed  great   (though  we  often  hear  extrava- 
gant over-statements  about  this)    and  skill   for   that  work  is   recognized 
in  the  matter  of  salaries;  but  the  last  two  years  of  the  elementary  school, 
especially  the  last  year,  is  a  stage  critical  for  still  more  momentous  issues, 
and  the   requisite  force,   skill,   and  scholarship   are  far  more  rare   among 
teachers   than   talent  to   teach   the   little   beginners   as   they   ought   to   be 
taught. 

2.  It   is  of   prime    importance   that  the  question   we   are    considering 
should  not  be  confounded   with  the   grounds   upon  which   schools   are  so 
much  censured  by  physicians.     The   doctors   are   right   in   blaming   some 
schools  for  injury  to  the  health  of  pupils;  but  they  are  mistaken  in  the 
off-hand    allegation   that   the    cause   is   too   much   learning,   over-burdened 
intellects.     I   am  opposed  to  "overcrowded"  courses  and  firmly  advocate 
substantial   study  of  essential  subjects,  instead  of  dabbling  in  multiplied 
subdivisions   of   topics;    but   the   doctors   err   when   they    allege   that    the 
crowding   of   such  topics   injures   the   health  by  overburdening  the   mind. 
It   is   the    intelligence    itself,   not   the   nervous   system,   that   suffers   from 
such  trifling.     What,  then,  is  the  true  cause  of  the  facts  which  physicians 
cry  out  against?     The   truth   is  bluntly  expressed   in  the  statement  that 
methods  of  teaching  cause  pupils  to  waste  the  time  spent  in  schools  and 
to  devote   to  ill-guided   study  the  time  which  ought  to  be  given  to   play 


394  NOTE    ON    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS 

and  domestic  intercourse.  In  the  elementary  school  there  should  be  very 
little  home  study.  It  is  best,  both  for  health  and  for  learning,  not  to 
require  of  pupils  outside  of  school  hours  tasks  in  which  they  need  a 
teacher's  explanation  or  guidance,  but  only  such  as  they  are  able  to  do 
without  assistance;  for  instance,  their  little  compositions,  work  of  mere 
copying,  spelling  lessons.  Other  matter  it  is  generally  better  to  read, 
discuss,  and  test  altogether  in  school. 

Older  pupils  must  do  more  home  study;  but,  even  in  the  high  school, 
the  definite  tasks  thus  assigned  should  not  often  be  more  than  one  hour's 
concentrated  application  would  accomplish;  for  to  this  has  to  be  added 
such  work  as  compositions  and  the  collateral  reading  belonging  to  some 
subjects  of  study, — work  which  in  its  nature  suits  times  of  more  leisure 
than  the  set  periods  of  school  hours,  and  which  older  pupils  ought  to 
regard  rather  as  interesting  and  stimulating  occupation  for  evenings  and 
Saturdays  than  as  a  burden. 

Progress  is  not  retarded,  it  is  accelerated  by  such  methods.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  children  can  learn  more  studying  ten  hours  a 
day  than  studying  six  or  seven  hours  a  day.  On  the  contrary,  children 
advance  more  rapidly  and  more  thoroughly  by  active  application  during 
the  shorter  pediod,  than  by  attempting  to  extend  study  over  time  prop- 
erly belonging  to  recreation  and  rest.  Family  conversation,  music,  games, 
enjoyable  books  ought  not  to  be  crowded  out  of  the  evenings  at  home. 
Certainly  the  school  needs  no  such  sacrifice. 

If  pupils  come  to  school  each  morning  expecting  to  learn  in  school  the 
greater  part  of  the  progress  destined  for  that  day,  they  will  set  to  their 
work  promptly,  whether  in  periods  for  quiet  study  and  the  teacher's 
individual  suggestions,  or  at  times  for  class  instruction.  The  habit  of 
concentrated  and  rapid  thought  will  develop.  Nor  will  a  pupil  who  feels 
that  he  has  much  to  do  in  a  short  time  be  thinking  of  mischief.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  pupils  come  to  school  with  the  feeling  whether  justified 
or  deluded,  that  they  have  already  "learned  their  lessons"  and  are  ready 
to  show  the  fact  to  an  inquisitor  (called  teacher),  or  if  they  come  with 
the  feeling,  dismayed  or  defiant,  that  they  do  not  know  the  lessons  they 
ought  already  to  know,  then,  equally  in  either  case,  such  pupils  do  not 
arrive  at  school  in  the  attitude  or  spirit  of  learners,  and  only  by  accident 
and  unintentionally  do  they  learn  as  the  hours  drag  along.  Instead  of 
the  interest  in  new  developments  after  questioning  upon  yesterday's  work 
is  over,  felt  by  children  who  look  forward  to  learning  today's  lesson, 
these  children,  who  look  backward  to  everything,  sit  waiting  to  be  "called 


NOTE   ON   ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS  395 

on,"  either  with  a  vain  desire  to  display  what  they  learned  last  night,  or 
with  a  sinking  hope  that  the  period  may  end  before  last  night's  neglect 
is  exposed — both  sorts  tempted  the  while  to  mischievous  diversions. 
Neither  a  text-book  nor  a  teacher  can  think  for  a  pupil  any  more  than 
he  could  breathe  for  him.  Knowledge  is  never,  except  in  a  faulty  figure 
of  speech,  a  thing  received  as  an  accretion,  or  to  be  digested  and  assimi- 
lated; but  it  is  always  an  act  to  be  performed,  a  power  passing  from 
potentiality  into  actuality,  and  teaching  is  wholly  and  solely  prompting 
and  guiding  one  to  perform  certain  acts.  These  statements,  trite  as  they 
are  to  the  philosopher,  express  truths  whose  general  recognition  by  teach- 
ers would  work  instant  reform  of  many  errors  which  now  defeat  the 
zealous  labor  of  thousands.  It  would  then  be  realized  that  it  is  the  office 
of  a  teacher  to  teach  today's  lessons;  and  American  homes  would  be 
relieved  of  the  veritable  blight  from  which  they  now  suffer  in  the  exces- 
sive "home  study"  required  of  young  children.  And  the  conditions  under 
which  weary  and  justly  irritated  parents  attempt  to  do  the  teaching  at 
home  to  sleepy  and  equally  irritated  children,  and  teachers  "hear  recita- 
tions" the  next  day,  would  soon  become  a  curious  anecdote  in  the  history 
of  education.  The  right  test  of  satisfactory  progress  of  a  pupil  is  that 
he  should  always  know  yesterday's  lesson.  Today's  lesson  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  teacher  to  teach  him.  Having  defined  what  is  meant  by 
"teach"  this  will  not  suggest  to  anyone  that  the  teacher  either  should 
or  could  do  for  a  pupil  the  work  that  the  learner  must  do,  if  there  is  to 
be  any  real  teaching  and  learning. 

3.  Give  more   attention   to   individual   pupils   than   is  commonly  sup- 
posed   to  be   possible  with   the   large    classes    necessitated   by   the   scant 
financial   resources   of   public  schools.     Unless   a  class  is  overwhelmingly 
large  it  is  possible  for  the  teacher,  if  alertly  working  upon  such  a  plan, 
to  observe  the   difficulties  and  shortcomings  of  individual  pupils  and  to 
give  to  each  the  needed  encouragement  and  guidance.     The  plea  of  "no 
time"  for  such  teaching  is  not  valid,  because  it  would  be  proved  by  the 
experience  of  a  month's  trial  of  the  plan,  that  the  progress  of  very  nearly 
the  entire   class  would  equal  that  of  its   "quicker"  half  under  methods 
of  teaching  that  leave  the  "dull"  half  a  hopeless  drag. 

4.  The  pitiful   consequences  of   foolish  theory  and  practice  concerning 
"promotions"  have  been  alluded  to.     The  sole  proper  basis  for  assigning 
a   pupil   to   a   particular   grade   is   his    ability   at   the   time   in   question. 
Ascertain  that  as  best  you  can,  and  act  accordingly.     The  application  of 
any   other    criterion   whatsoever   is   preposterous.      Neither    past  behavior 


396  NOTE   ON    ELEMENTARY    SCHOOLS 

nor  past  diligence  per  se,  is  pertinent  to  the  genuine  question.  Every 
school  in  which  "deportment,"  "punctuality,"  etc.,  are  used  in  making 
the  "average"  that  decides  the  question  of  promotion,  advertises  thought- 
less mismanagement.  If  a  pupil  has  been  mischievous,  will  it  help  him 
or  the  general  welfare  to  retain  him  in  a  grade  where  suitable  occupation 
and  interest  are  impossible?  Unruly  pupils  reform  spontaneously  on 
advancing  to  more  stimulating  work.  Almost  all  boys  pass  through  a 
year  or  two  of  natural  resistance  to  control.  It  is  of  comparatively  little 
importance  how  such  recalcitrants  are  punished  for  overt  acts,  if  they 
are  promoted  according  to  ability  to  understand  the  studies  of  consecu- 
tive grades.  On  the  other  hand,  docile  deportment  is  in  itself  no  quali- 
fication for  promotion.  These  statements  are  self-evident,  but  they  point 
to  a  widely  needed  quickening  of  dry  bones. 

5.  Marked  changes   in  subject-matter  and  methods  of  instruction  and 
discipline  ought  to  differentiate  the  stages  of  elementary  school  and  high 
school.     Nothing  would  operate  more  effectively  to  retain  pupils   in  the 
high  school   (the  stage  of  results)   than  intelligent  recognition  of  the  won- 
drous changes  in  capacities  and  dispositions  wrought  by  nature  about  the 
time  when  the  elenientary  school  course  is  finished,  if  an  inordinate  time 
is  not  required  for  that  course.     The  standard  of  six  years  for  elementary 
school,  four  years  for  high  school,  and  four  years  for  college  or  university 
undergraduate  course,  correspond  admirably  to  natural  stages  of  develop- 
ment of  a  normal  individual  entering  such  a  system  in  the  seventh  year 
of  age.    It  is  especially  significant  how  accurately  six  years  for  the  ele- 
mentary  school   fits    the    physiological   and   psychological    development   of 
the  normal   child. 

Among  the  minor,  but  not  unimportant  means  of  suitable  demarkation 
between  the  elementary  school  and  high  school  is  the  stopping  of  the 
"grade"  names  with  the  end  of  the  elementary  school,  and  calling  the 
high  school  classes  first-year  class,  second-year  class,  third-year  class,  and 
fourth-year  class.  These  simple  names  are  more  appropriate  to  a,  high 
school  than  the  collegiate  terms,  freshmen,  sophomore,  junior,  and  senior. 
This  may  seem  a  small  matter,  but  I  know  by  experience  that  it  secures 
many  practical  advantages  in  both  internal  and  external  relations  of 
schools. 

6.  Give  the  teachers  a  free  hand  and  hold,  them  responsible  for  suc- 
cess.    The  substitution  of  regulation  for  genuine  organization  in  the  pro- 
fessional life  and  work  of  teachers  grouped  in  one  school  or  school  sys- 
tem, is  a  tremendous  obstacle  to  efficiency.     This  is  an  intensely  practical 


NOTE   ON    ELEMENTAEY    SCHOOLS  397 

point;  nothing  bears  more  immediately  upon  results.  In  many  schools 
each  teacher  feels  concern  for  only  one  small  segment  of  the  school's 
work,  having  no  comprehension  of,  responsibility  for,  or  authority  in  the 
whole.  Not  infrequently  lack  of  organized  co-operatin  engenders  positive 
habits  of  suspicious,  repellant,  or  antagonistic  attitudes  on  the  part  of 
those  who  ought  to  be  co-workers.  The  fault  lies  mainly,  and  almost 
always,  in  the  superintendent  or  his  predecessors.  Its  consequences  are 
not  confined  to  poor  results  in  studies,  but  appear  also  in  the  moral 
atmosphere  of  the  school.  It  is  a  sure  sign  of  its  existence  if  pupils 
conceive  that  no  teacher  except  the  one  in  whose  room  they  "belong" 
has  responsibility  for  or  authority  over  them.  If  it  exists,  it  will  be 
conspicuous  in  "departmental"  teaching.  The  only  serious  objection  to 
departmental  teaching  at  all  stages  is  the  difficulty,  under  the  conditions 
referred  to,  of  securing  'team  work'  and  the  personal  harmony  upon 
which  success  depends.  Good  results  require  thorough  co-operation,  espe- 
cially between  teachers  of  consecutive  grades.  A  superintendent  is  a 
disorganiz&r  who  does  not  lead  teachers  who  have  been  long  under  his 
influence,  to  sincere  co-operation  in  a  natural  spirit  of  responsibility  for 
mutual  support.  Each  teacher  should  be  free  in  minor  arrangements 
for  executing  the  work  assigned,  being  held  responsible  for  a  fair  measure 
of  success.  Each  should  know  and  appreciate  the  standard  of  accom- 
plishment required  by  the  system  of  the  pupils  given  in  charge  for  the 
year  or  term;  but  consultation  with  the  teachers  in  the  grades  next  above 
and  next  below  is  necessary  to  keep  the  work  of  each  in  organized  adjust- 
ment. Beyond  the  prescribed  course  of  study  and  standards  of  efficiency 
and  such  schedule  arrangements  as  must  be  conformed  to  by  all,  the 
superintendent  should  be  an  intelligent  and  sympathetic  adviser,  not  a 
commander.  The  following  of  daily  programs  carried  to  minute  divisions 
of  time,  peremptorily  imposed  by  superintendents,  is  one  of  the  most 
deadening  influences  in  over-regulated  schools.  Along  with  it  goes  teach- 
ing that  is  almost  exclusively  addressed  to  the  class  as  a  whole.  All 
are  familiar  with  the  usual  performance  under  such  methods — the  teacher's 
questioning,  the  raising  of  hands  and  answers  by  insistent  pupils,  and 
the  laggard  rear  who  hardly  get  'in  the  procession'  at  all,  or  soon  fall 
out  of  it. 

Over-regulation  is  the  specific  symptom  of  disorganizing  administrative 
control.  The  genuine  organizer  of  any  work  for  spiritual  results  must 
have  the  power  of  communicating  that  feeling  for  the  dignity  of  manhood 
and  womanhood  and  that  sense  of  personal  responsibility,  which  are  essen- 


398  NOTE   ON   INDUSTRIAL   TRAINING 

tial  to  true  success  in  such  work.  Organization  means  life  and  spon- 
taneous co-operation;  uniformity,  beyond  general  limits,  means  death  and 
arbitrary  control. 

I  can  add  only  one  concluding  comment.  In  order  to  appreciate  fully 
the  immense  advantage  of  completing  the  elementary  course  in  six  years, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  vaunted  benefits  of  education  are  not 
derivable  from  the  childish  studies  of  the  elementary  school.  There  a 
foundation  is  laid  upon  which  something  of  supreme  value  may  be  built; 
but  if  educational  processes  are  not  somehow  carried  beyond  that  stage 
the  benefits  of  enlightenment  and  breadth  of  mental  horizon  and  disci- 
pline of  intellectual  powers,  which  are  spoken  of  as  the  results  of  edu- 
cation, are  not  reached.  On  the  other  hand,  a  good  high  school  should 
furnish  the  groundwork  of  a  liberal  and  practical  education.  The  powers 
of  acquisition  and  reflection  in  youth  during  the  years  from  thirteen  to 
seventeen  are  underrated.  Of  course,  no  deep  and  specialized  study  is 
possible  in  the  high  school;  but  the  mental  horizon  may  be  sufficiently 
broadened  for  intelligent  citizenship  and  for  individual  dignity  and  power. 
The  high  school  student  cannot  progress  very  far  along  any  particular 
avenue,  but  the  vistas  of  almost  all  sciences  might  be  opened  to  him,  and 
he  might  learn  the  trend  and  something  of  the  aims  and  attainments  of 
the  main  spheres  of  human  activity.  Unless  parents  will  give  their  chil- 
dren the  opportunities  of  a  good  high  school,  or  some  equivalent,  they 
are  deceived  if  they  imagine  that  any  of  the  benefits  of  education,  of 
which  they  hear  and  talk  so  much,  are  otherwise  obtainable.  The  ele- 
mentary school  prepares  children  to  reap  the  harvest  belonging  to  the 
next  four  years;  and  a  marvelously  rich  harvest  may  be  garnered  in  those 
years.  An  experienced  and  observant  teacher  who  should  have  the  rare 
fortune  of  teaching  in  a  high  school  from  which  the  majority  of  the 
highest  spirited  youths  have  not  been  excluded  by  an  inordinate  require- 
ment of  time  preparatory  to  entering  it,  could  not  but  be  impressed  by 
the  quality  and  amount  of  what  is  attainable  by  unenervated  pupils  pur- 
suing a  good  high  school  course  of  study  at  the  suitable  ages. 

NOTE  ON  INDUSTRIAL  TRAINING 

A  few  years  ago  the  topic  of  this  note  would  have  been  as  far  removed 
from  the  subject  of  this  book  as  any  matter  of  great  social  importance 
could  be.  The  need  for  effective  industrial  training  is  great,  but  its 
rational  function  in  society  and  for  the  individual  has  been  lost  sight 


NOTE   ON    INDUSTRIAL   TRAINING  399 

of  amid  a  babble  about  "democracy"  and  "education"  in  which  the  latter 
word  is  used  in  a  sense  so  vague  and  extensive  that  no  definite  or  sub- 
stantial meaning  is  retained.  "Not  long  ago,"  said  Professor  Grandgent, 
in  December,  1912,  in  his  presidential  address  to  the  Modern  Language 
Association  of  America,  "I  listened  to  a  shout  of  triumph  from  the  head 
of  a  normal  school.  'At  last,'  he  cried,  'we  have  got  the  colleges  where 
we  want  them!  They  can  no  longer  dictate  to  us;  they  must  take  what 
we  see  fit  to  give.  If  we  say  that  four  years  of  blacksmithing  make  a 
suitable  high  school  curriculum,  then  they  must  accept  four  years  of 
blacksmithing  as  a  preparation  for  college.'  Here  we  have  an  absolute 
reductio  ad  absurdum.  We  can,  of  course,  open  our  colleges  to  smiths, 
and  turn  them  into  smithies;  but  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that 
they  will  then  cease  to  be  colleges,  and  we  shall  be  left  with  no  higher 
education  at  all.  .  .  .  What  should  be  the  purpose  of  education  in  a 
democracy?  Should  it  be  solely  to  fit  men  and  women  to  perform  effi- 
ciently their  daily  economic  task?  That  is,  of  course,  an  important  func- 
tion, but  it  cannot  be  all.  Otherwise  progress  would  become  impossible 
as  far  as  schooling  can  make  it  so.  .  .  .  The  individuals  we  have  to 
deal  with  are  not  machines:  they  are  human  beings  of  almost  infinite 
capabilities,  destined  to  be  citizens  and  parents.  They  must  be  capable 
of  living  the  life  of  the  spirit,  of  appreciating  the  good  things  in  nature, 
in  conduct,  and  in  art;  they  must  be  able  to  cope  intelligently  with 
weighty  problems  of  public  policy;  they  must  leave  behind  them  descend- 
ants who  shall  be  more,  rather  than  less,  competent  than  themselves. 
The  higher  we  rise  in  the  scale  of  development,  the  less  conspicuous  the 
purely  economic  aspect  of  the  individual  becomes." 

That  man's  character  is  poisoned  at  the  heart  of  it  who  does  not  appre- 
ciate highly  the  generic  dignity  and  worth  of  every  human  spirit,  but  it 
is  folly  to  talk  and  madness  to  act  as  if  every  individual  could  realize 
in  this  mundane  span  of  life  all  generic  potentialities.  Yet  we  hear  on 
every  side  university  leaders  who  stand  before  the  people  crying  that  the 
college  degree  is,  or  is  soon  to  be,  within  the  reach  of  every  American 
boy  and  girl!  This  is  sheer  hysteria — when  it  is  not  deceit.  The  right 
ideal  is  that  a  way  to  higher  education  should  be  opened  by  the  state  to 
all  who  are  fit  and  able  to  walk  in  it;  but  even  the  high  school  must 
long  remain  beyond  the  reach  of  the  numerical  majority.  It  is  the  ene- 
mies, not  the  friends,  of  that  majority  who  cozen  them  with  banal  untruths, 
and  neglect  or  prevent  serviceable  institutions  which  would  supply  present 


400  NOTE   ON    INDUSTRIAL   TRAINING 

needs  and  uplifting  tendencies.  If  democracy  is  to  succeed,  education 
must  not  be  degraded  to  the  lowest  levels,  but  as  large  a  part  of  the 
people  as  possible  must  be  lifted  to  higher  comprehension  of  individual  life 
and  social  organization. 

A  definite  evil  and  a  grave  danger  confronts  us.  No  man  should  say 
that  it  cannot  be  corrected,  unless  he  is  willing  to  adopt  the  terrible 
diagnosis  presented  in  Emile  Faguet's  The  Cult  of  Incompetence.  Let  us 
hope — and  lead  it,  not  as  a  forlorn  hope — that  Faguet's  acute  and  powerful 
analysis  has  omitted  to  take  into  account  conserving  forces  which  may 
redeem  the  civilization  that  seems  to  him  doomed  to  advancing  degradation. 

Thirteen  years  ago  circumstances  led  me  to  make  a  statement  on  this 
subject,  which  is  pertinent  to-day.  On  July  1,  1901,  Governor  Joseph  D. 
Sayers  appointed  me  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  in  Texas, 
and  on  the  27th  day  of  that  month  a  circular  was  issued  from  which  the 
following  is  quoted: 

Manual  Training  in  the  Regular  Schools,  and 
Industrial  or  Trade  Schools. 

The  problem  of  Industrial  Education,  as  it  is  called,  is  just  now 
of  special  importance  in  Texas  because  of  the  agitation  for  immediate 
legislation  on  the  subject.  If  this  movement  can  be  wisely  guided, 
benefit  will  result;  if  not,  incalculable  damage.  To  judge  from  the 
greater  part  of  recent  public  writing  and  speaking  in  connection  with 
the  movement  referred  to,  there  is  urgent  need  to  discriminate  clearly 
the  distinct  nature  and  purpose  of  the  two  things  which  are  called, 
respectively,  Manual  Training  and  Industrial  Training. 

Manual  training  is  an  educational  question,  to  be  decided  pro  or  con 
as  you  would  decide  for  or  against  the  teaching  of  Latin  or  chem- 
istry, and  on  the  same  fundamental  principles:  it  is  for  a  prince's 
son  as  well  as  for  a  blacksmith's.  Industrial  training,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  not  strictly  an  educational  question  at  all:  it  is  related  to 
educational  work  merely  as  questions  of  hygiene,  poverty,  home  en- 
vironment, etc.,  are  related  to  it.  On  its  own  merits  it  is  an  affain 
of  social  economy  and  morals. 

Manual  Training. — I  value  highly  the  educational  usefulness  of 
manual  training  regarded  not  as  a  rival  but  as  a  help  to  other  studies. 
I  believe  the  effect  on  character  may  be  bracing  and  profound;  that 
it  is  a  natural  stimulus  to  the  self-activity  which  is  the  aim  of  the 
whole  educational  regimen;  that  power  is  developed  by  expedients 


NOTE   ON    INDUSTRIAL   TRAINING  401 

not  otherwise  available  (wood-turning  requires  boldness  and  foresight 
forge-work  regulation  and  reserve  of  power,  and  so  on)  ;  that  the 
intellect  and  the  artistic  sense  are  duly  stimulated  and  have  full  play; 
and  that  interest  is  legitimately  secured  and  healthfully  maintained. 
Now,  it  may  not  be  a  great  or  vital  question  that  every  school  should 
at  once  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  manual  training  department,  but 
the  advantages  are  real  and  manifold  when  rationally  utilized. 
.  .  .  Attention  might  well  be  given  to  organizing  and  correlating 
with  manual  training  the  perfunctory  use  now  made  in  most  of  our 
public  schools  of  singing  and  drawing.  Space  forbids  any  extended 
discussion  of  the  matter,  but  I  am  convinced  that  a  means  for  uplift- 
ing and  brightening  social  and  individual  life  in  this  commonwealth 
has  been  indicated  in  this  passing  suggestion.  The  dearth  of  vocal 
music  among  us  and  among  our  children  is  as  sad  for  the  present  as 
it  is  ominous  for  the  future;  and  the  stupid  and  insincere  tasks  put 
upon  our  children  in  jangling  upon  pianos  only  make  the  situation 
worse,  so  far  as  the  true  pleasure  and  benefits  of  music  are  concerned. 

Industrial  Training. — Industrial  training  is  a  totally  different  ques- 
tion: primarily,  it  looks  to  the  teaching  of  handicrafts,  of  trades. 
Crafts  of  a  more  intellectual  or  scientific  order  constitute  the  sphere 
of  technical  schools.  Trade  schools  have  no  more — and  no  less — to 
do  with  education  than  with  religion;  yet  there  are  practical  con- 
nections between  the  true  schools  and  industrial  training  schools 
which  recommend  organic  relations  and  unity  of  control.  .  .  . 

Partial  Solution  of  the  Problem. — I  think  industrial  training  can 
be  provided  where  the  need  for  it  is  most  urgent  without  draining  the 
resources  of  the  schools.  ...  In  all  our  cities  where  buildings 
and  teachers  are  duplicated  and  reduplicated  for  the  same  grade, 
industrial  training  could  be  instituted  forthwith  without  increasing 
the  cost  of  maintenance.  This  plan,  moreover,  would  positively  benefit 
the  schools  proper  by  relieving  them  of  pupils  to  whom  the  schools 
do  little  good,  and  who  do  harm  to  the  schools.  [There  is  place  and 
need  for  reform  schools  in  which  trades  are  taught,  but  every  stigma 
of  any  such  reference  should  be  far  removed  from  the  trade  schools 
of  which  I  am  speaking.  While  it  is  true  that  many  pupils  who 
from  lack  of  capacity  or  interest  get  no  good  in  the  regular  schools, 
would  be  led  to  the  trade  schools,  it  is  also  true  that  many  of  our 
soundest  boys  would  prefer  genuine  trade  schools.  Elementary  trade 


402  NOTE  ON   INDUSTRIAL  TRAINING 

schools  would  in  due  time  lead  to  good  secondary  technical  schools, 
but  could  not  lead  directly  to  any  good  college.] 

Present  conditions  do  not  satisfy  the  needs  of  those  who,  whether 
from  poverty  or  choice,  will  not  take  even  the  instruction  of  proper 
elementary  schools;  and  how  to  render  this  large  number  true  service 
is  a  difficult  and  dangerous  question.  The  industrial  training  of  such 
children  is  a  subject  of  vast  economic  and  social  importance,  and 
peculiarly  important  in  regard  to  the  negro  population.  But  the 
question  is  most  urgent  in  the  cities,  and  I  have  pointed  out  an  easy 
solution  in  them. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  needful  that  all  true  statesmen  give  the  most 
serious  study  and  consideration  to  this  subject,  and  see  to  it  that 
they  are  not  carried  away  by  any  'half-baked'  schemes  to  set  up 
industrial  training  at  the  expense  of  the  educational  work  of  the 
state.  .  .  .  Our  civilization  needs,  and  needs  urgently,  some  sub- 
stitute for  the  discarded  system  of  apprenticeships  which  was  the 
means  devised  and  practiced  by  our  forefathers  to  an  end  for  which 
we  must  now  devise  some  improved  means.  ...  I  trust  that  our 
city  school  systems  may,  sooner  or  later,  and  one  after  another,  set 
apart  such  of  their  buildings  as  may  suffice  to  begin  the  experiment 
of  practical  industrial  training.  As  I  have  said,  this  need  not  add 
to  the  whole  cost  of  maintenance,  and  it  would  help,  not  hinder,  the 
true  schools;  and  would,  at  the  same  time,  meet  one  of  the  greatest 
and  most  urgent  needs  of  our  civilization,  in  providing  a  way  for  the 
training,  as  skilled  laborers,  of  an  important  part  of  our  population, 
which  under  existing  conditions  is  left  to  meet  this  life's  struggles 
almost  wholly  unaided  by  the  educational  and  economic  system  of 
the  society  which  must  ever  depend  so  largely  upon  the  virtue,  hap- 
piness, and  efficiency  of  this  now  neglected  part. 

Trade  schools,  frankly  instituted  as  such,  would  be  infinitely  better 
than  the  introduction  into  elementary  schools  and  high  schools  of  that 
which  is  now  going  by  the  name  "vocational  education."  Among  other 
faults  of  the  latter  may  be  mentioned  the  fact  that  its  vague  devices 
are  not  truly  vocational.  The  teaching  in  our  elementary  schools,  espe- 
cially, needs  thorough  reformation,*  and  much  of  it  should  be  along  the 
lines  vaguely  intended  in  the  demand  for  more  practical  teaching;  but 


*Cf.,  p.  29.     Also,  Note  on  Elementary  Schools,  pp.  386-398. 


NOTE   ON   INDUSTRIAL   TRAINING  403 

the  term  "vocational"  adopted  by  those  who  are  stumbling  to  appease  a 
threatening  discontent  is  worse  than  a  misnomer,  for  it  represents  a  mis- 
conception of  both  the  faults  of  commission  which  should  be  corrected 
and  the  omissions  which  should  be  supplied.  No  instruction  suitable  for 
children  in  the  general  elementary  schools  could  be  properly  termed 
vocational. 

No  rational  conception  of  democracy  is  infringed  by  trade  schools  for 
those  who  need  and  prefer  them.  Every  sane  democratic  feeling  should 
be  satisfied  with  the  attendance  by  children  of  all  sorts,  for  a  few  years 
at  least,  in  the  common  school;  and  the  regular  elementary  and  secondary 
school  system  is  open  to  all.  It  is  but  recognizing  the  inevitable  to  meet 
the  need  for  an  early  divergence  of  lines  of  training.  To  refuse  this  can 
only  mean  for  many  no  substantial  training  at  all,  and  for  many  others 
ill-suited  and  probably  injurious  schooling.  My  hopes  for  occidental  civil- 
ization are  based  upon  prospects  of  the  rise  of  what  has  been  called  the 
democracy  of  individuality;  that  is  to  say,  a  society,  not  of  persons  in- 
creasingly like  each  other  in  all  respects,  but  of  persons  increasingly  spe- 
cialized in  some  respects — particularly  in  respect  to  efficient  work  for 
their  own  and  the  general  livelihood.  All  present  tendencies  are  not 
leveling  down  to  the  possibilities  of  uniformity.  I  see  conditions  that 
may  compel  even  the  most  ignorant  and  the  dreamers  to  appreciate  and 
uphold  distinctions  in  native  ability  and  specialized  preparation.  Such 
inequalities  are  founded  in  nature  and  appear  necessary  for  the  perma- 
nence of  any  civilization.  Even  ranting  gainsayers  of  all  this  are  already 
talking  about  the  present  time  approvingly  (though  with  characteristic 
unconsciousness  of  their  contradictions)  as  an  "age  of  specialists."  It  has 
been  well  said  that  a  society  of  equals  or  similars,  each  as  complete  as 
any,  would  be  like  a  heap  of  sand  composed  of  particles  which  do  not 
cohere,  and  that  any  political  house  built  upon  it  must  fall.  Whereas,  a 
society  of  dissimilars  is  like  the  rock  composed  of  particles  which  com- 
plement and  cleave  to  each  other,  and  a  political  house  built  upon  it  may 
stand. 

Within  the  last  ten  years  some  encouraging  development  of  trade  schools 
has  taken  place  in  a  few  public  school  systems;  but  the  weak  device  mis- 
called "vocational  education,"  after  ramifying  through  the  public  elemen- 
tary schools  and  high  schools,  has  insinuated  its  tentacles  upwards  and 
is  now  sapping  the  vigor  of  our  institutions  for  higher  education.  The 
struggling  colleges  and  the  state  universities  have  been  most  encroached 


404  NOTE  ON   INDUSTRIAL  TRAINING 

upon.  There  is  no  reference  here  to  the  technological  departments  and 
schools  or  to  the  professional  schools  of  the  modern  university,  but  to  the 
dilution  of  undergraduate  academic  curricula  with  a  flood  of  "vocational" 
courses.  Also,  universities  (especially  those  located  in  cities)  may  prop- 
erly encourage  attendance  by  students  of  any  age  in  any  courses  for  which 
they  are  prepared,  who  work,  either  as  apprentices  or  foremen,  in  shops 
and  factories  or  other  occupation;  but  there  ought  to  be  no  thought  of 
university  degrees  for  such  students,  unless  such  irregular  studies  be  con- 
tinued to  a  presentation  of  the  full  quota  of  legitimate  courses  for  a  degree. 
If  external  shop-work  does,  in  any  instance,  really  make  an  equivalent 
of  genuine  college  study,  the  fact  would  take  care  of  itself  by  reducing 
the  time  and  effort  required  in  mastering  such  courses.  In  general  it  is 
a  prostitution,  and  commonly  it  is  a  fraud,  to  give  credit  toward  degrees 
for  industrial*  occupation  outside  of  college.  The  same  principles  apply 
to  the  so-called  vocational  courses,  within  the  college,  on  boy-scouting, 
millinery,  etc.  Some  such  courses  would  be  trivial  anywhere;  some  ought 
to  be  left  to  trade  schools;  others,  if  offered,  should  be  for  voluntary 
attendance  without  "credit."  If  the  present  drift — or  stampede,  as  the 
case  may  be — in  many  state  universities  is  not  checked  and  reformation 
begun,  they  will  soon  find  themselves  as  bereft  of  confidence  and  esteem 
as  lacking  in  usefulness.  Their  scramble  to  please  "the  greatest  number" 
can  end  only  in  pleasing  nobody. 

"What  we  term  'vocational  training,' "  says  Professor  Grandgent,  "being 
the  most  'practical'  and  offering  no  considerable  difficulty  to  the  pupil, 
is  now  first  in  favor.  .  .  .  As  a  supplement  to  education  or  as  an 
apprenticeship  for  those  who  must  remain  uneducated,  I  believe  it  is 
destined  to  render  great  service ;  but  let  us  not  make  the  mistake  of  calling 
it  education.  It  should  prepare  a  boy  to  succeed  in  his  business;  probably 
it  will,  when  it  is  better  developed.  But  it  affords  no  more  education 
than  is  to  be  derived  from  the  business  itself.  When  we  say  that  'life  is 
a  school,'  we  are  conscious  that  our  phrase  is  a  figure  of  speech:  'voca- 
tional education'  is  another.  Perhaps  the  worst  feature  of  it  is  that 
'vocational'  subjects  are  so  apt  to  be  chosen,  not  from  vocation,  not  with 
any  intention  of  preparing  for  a  career,  but  merely  for  the  purpose  of 
avoiding  real  study."  Professor  Grandgent  lays  the  blame  for  these  con- 
ditions on  a  "psuedo-pedagogy"  and  "a  host  of  pseudo-educators  too  unin- 
structed  to  know  any  better."  "An  easy  career,"  he  says,  "has  been  opened 
to  young  men  not  overburdened  with  wit  or  learning.  Having  collected 


NOTE   ON   INDUSTRIAL   TRAINING  405 

some  information  about  school  administration  and  the  history  of  peda- 
gogical speculation,  a  set  of  arbitrary  formulas,  some  bits  of  dubious 
psychology,  and,  above  all,  an  imposing  technical  vocabulary,  they  are 
accepted  as  prophets  by  an  equally  ignorant  public  and  given  control  of 
our  schools." 

The  public  is,  of  course,  not  to  be  blamed  for  ignorance  of  technical 
matters  which  can  be  understood  only  after  deep  preparation  and  thorough 
study;  its  fault  has  lain  in  a  propensity  to  regard  all  men  as  equally 
competent  to  execute  any  plan,  and  deem  itself  competent  to  dictate  a 
plan  for  any  purpose.  The  infatuated  attempt  to  break  continuity  with 
the  past,  which  in  recent  years  has  become  almost  hysterical,  has  wrought 
a  general  confusion  and  has  submerged  discrimination  in  all  spheres. 

"By  our  neglect  of  the  past,"  says  Professor  Grandgent,  "we  have  cut 
ourselves  off  from  standards  of  all  kinds,  and  hence,  like  the  new-born 
moth,  are  attracted  by  the  first  glare.  Dante  had  a  word  to  say  on  this, 
many  centuries  ago:  'Just  as  the  man  who  has  lost  sight  of  his  bodily 
eyes  has  to  depend  on  others  for  the  distinction  of  good  and  bad,  so  he 
who  possesses  not  the  light  of  discrimination  always  follows  after  the 
shout,  be  it  true  or  false.  .  .  .  And  inasmuch  as  the  habit  of  any 
virtue,  moral  or  intellectual,  cannot  be  assumed  at  once,  but  must  be 
acquired  by  practice,  and  they  practice  nothing  but  their  handicraft  and 
bestow  no  care  on  other  things,  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  have  judg- 
ment. .  .  .'  This  is  a  passage  to  be  meditated  by  our  professional  edu- 
cators. There  was  a  time  when  schools  attempted,  at  least,  to  cultivate 
discrimination  and  to  furnish  the  material  on  which  selection  can  be 
founded;  but  in  these  days  of  Vocational  training,'  when  pupils  are  en- 
couraged 'to  practice  nothing  but  their  handicraft,'  it  is,  in  Dante's  words, 
'impossible  for  them  to  have  judgment.'  And  it  is  inevitable  that  in  their 
blindness  they  should  follow  false  guides;  for  the  loudest  bellow  is  sure 
to  issue  from  the  windiest  prophet,  the  biggest  blaze  from  those  luminaries 
that  would  rather  be  flashlights,  and  dazzle  for  one  instant,  than  gleam 
as  modest  but  permanent  stars  in  the  sky.'They  that  be  wise,'  says  a  once 
popular  book,  'shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament;  and  they 
that  turn  many  to  righteousness  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever.'  But  none 
of  this  for  our  Futurists,  Post-Futurists,  and  Neo'a  of  every  description 
.  .  .  The  aggregate  of  knowledge,  at  the  present  day,  is  greater  than 
ever  before;  but  the  large  share-holders  in  this  knowledge  are  no  longer  in 
control.  Leadership  has  been  assumed  by  the  untrained  host,  which  is 


406  NOTE  ON  INDUSTRIAL  TRAINING 

troubled  by  no  doubt  concerning  its  competence  and  therefore  feels  no 
inclination  to  improve  its  judgment.  .  .  .  Never  before  were  condi- 
tions so  favorable  to  the  easy  diffusion  of  a  false  semblance  of  information. 
Cheap  magazines,  Sunday  supplements,  moving  pictures  have  taken  the 
place  of  books.  Quickly  scanned  and  quickly  forgotten,  they  leave  in  the 
mind  nothing  but  the  illusion  of  knowledge.  .  .  .  The  more  widely 
education  has  been  diffused,  the  thinner  it  has  been  spread.  We  have  now 
reached  a  stage  where  it  seems  to  be  on  the  verge  of  reverting  to  the  old 
system  of  apprenticeship  to  a  trade." 

For  my  part,  I  take  heart  of  grace  from  abundant  evidence  that  "the 
untrained  host"  is  troubled  by  doubts — perhaps  of  its  own  competence, 
probably  of  its  demagogues,  certainly  of  its  educators.  One  thing  is  sure: 
The  university  abdicates  its  highest  obligation  when  it  merely  listens  for 
and  tries  to  satisfy  popular  demands.  It  is  an  essential  duty  of  a  uni- 
versity to  determine  what  is  needed,  and  then  to  endeavor  to  lead  individ- 
uals and  the  whole  people  to  want  what  they  need. 


STUDENT   LIFE   AND   WORK  407 


VII.     STUDENT  LIFE  AND  WORK. 

As  a  separate  subject  the  title  of  this  chapter  would  require  an 
entire  book  for  an  adequate  treatment.  The  life  and  work  of  stu- 
dents is  the  vital  outgrowth  of  the  government  and  administration 
of  institutions  for  higher  education  which  is  at  once  the  purpose 
and  the  test  of  every  properly  conceived  plan  for  organization  or 
management.  I  say  the  outgrowth,  not  the  creature,  because  the 
spirit  of  nascent  manhood  in  its  matriculants  and  all  previous  in- 
fluences of  home  and  school  and  society  are  not  inert  data  to  a 
university,  but  a  potent  reacting  factor  co-ordinate  with  its  own 
influence.  It  is  impossible  to  regulate  the  process  by  arbitrary 
rules,  and  everything  pertaining  to  it  should  be  conceived  and 
conducted  in  that  spirit  of  respect  and  delicate  self-restraint  proper 
to  all  dealings  with  living  things.  If  educators  in  this  country 
were  half  as  respectful  of  the  youths  and  young  men  they  under- 
take to  guide  and  develop,  as  experimenters  with  plants  are  of  the 
objects  of  their  developing  guidance,  no  need  for  any  such  book 
as  I  have  attempted  to  make  would  exist. 

Undergraduates. 

The  American  university  has  had,  in  this  regard,  a  more  difficult 
duty  than  the  German  university,  because  of  the  need,  with  us,  to 
make  a  transition  in  one  institution  from  a  degree  of  control  suit- 
able for  our  "freshmen"  and  the  freedom  proper  for  our  "seniors." 
Here  is  a  real  difficulty,  but  nothing  impossible.  The  need  is 
absolute  and  the  duty  imperative.  There  is  no  occasion  to  alter 
the  American  plan  of  advancing  to  a  higher  institution  after  the 
stage  of  our  standard  high  schools,  which  is  doubtless  better  suited 
to  our  needs  and  spirit  than  the  German  plan  would  be.  We  have 
discussed  this  question, — see  page  387  et  seq.,  especially  page  391, — 
but  it  may  be  added  here  that  Professor  Paulsen,  after  describing 


408  UNDERGRADUATES 

some  injurious  effects  of  prolonging  too  far  into  the  life  of  German 
youth  the  prescribed  curricula  and  school-discipline  of  .the  gymnasia 
and  contrasting  that  plan  with  the  American  college,  says:  . 

"We  cannot  get  away  from  the  institutions  which  have  grown  up  among 
us.  But  I  fail  to  see  what  would  prevent  us  from  essentially  approxi- 
mating this  [the  American  college]  system  in  our  methods,  and  it  seems 
that  we  are  moving  in  that  direction.  .  .  .  Let  us  go  further,  let  us 
accentuate  the  division  in  our  class  system  between  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  (Unter-  and  Obersekunda)  ;  let  us  give  more  scope  in  our  upper 
grade  to  individual  talent  and  initiative,  so  that  special  zeal  and  success 
in  one  branch,  or  in  a  group  of  related  branches,  will  condone  for  a  rela- 
tive lack  of  success  in  other  branches  not  so  well  adapted  to  the  student's 
capacity  and  inclination.  For  example,  let  us  reduce  the  requirements  in 
mathematics  in  the  gymnasia  for  those  who  do  not  like  this  branch,  with 
the  proviso,  however,  that  they  do  correspondingly  better  work  in  the 
ancient  languages;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  let  us  abate  somewhat  our 
insistence  upon  correct  Latin  in  the  case  of  those  whose  talents  point  them 
to  mathematics  and  physics.  Or,  better  still,  let  us  form  a  select  class 
in  each  group  into  which  it  would  be  an  honor  to  be  received.  It  is  the 
spontaneity  of  acquisition  which  gives  value  to  knowledge,  not  the  extent 
and  uniformity  of  its  possession.  .  .  .  The  university  can  also  make 
an  effort  to  bridge  the  chasm  from  its  side.  And  here,  too,  the  process 
has  already  begun;  the  constant  increase  of  exercises,  especially  the  estab- 
lishment and  perfection  of  exercise  courses  for  beginners,  in  addition  to 
the  seminars  for  the  advanced  students,  will  be  serviceable  for  this 
purpose.'' 

"<• 

This  judgment  of  the  most  eminent  exponent  of  German  univer- 
sity work  and  ideals  concurs  with  that  of  the  great  London  Com- 
mission on  University  Education,*  and  with  various  facts  and 
arguments  submitted  in  previous  chapters.  It  is  the  administra- 
tion, not  the  fundamental  conception  of  the  American  college  and 
university,  that  is  at  fault. 

The  scope  of  this  book  must  confine  its  concluding  chapter  to  a 
few  aspects  of  student  life  and  work  closely  related  to  the  organi- 


*See  page  283  et  seq. 


UNDERGRADUATES  409 

zation  and  administration  of  the  institution.*  Aside  from  such 
considerations,  there  is  no  room  for  any  extensive  or  descriptive 
treatment  of  this  last  topic.  Many  references  to  student  life  and 
work  have  occurred  in  previous  chapters,  which  may  be  located  by 
consulting  the  index  under  the  title  Students,  and  other  titles  such 
as  Athletics,  Freshmen,  Elective  System,  Graduate  Departments, 
Lectures,  etc.  I  wish  I  could  refer  readers  to  a  vital  book  on 
student  life  in  the  United  States  of  America,  but  if  any  such  book 
exists  I  am  not  aware  of  it.  The  best  I  can  do  is  to  advise  all 
(especially  students)  to  read  Paulsen's  The  German,  Universities, 
particularly  its  Book  IV,  on  "Students  and  Academic  Study/'  pages 
263  to  378  of  the  translation**  by  Prof.  Thilly.  The  differences  in 
institutional  arrangements  in  the  two  countries  should  not  obscure 
the  essential  principles,  nor  will  differing  social  adjustments  con- 
fuse, for  an  open  mind,  the  universal  characteristics  of  courageous 
and  refined  manhood. 

"All  experience,"  says  Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  "is  against 
the  notion  that  the  means  to  produce  a  supply  of  good  ordinary 
men  is  to  attempt  nothing  higher.  I  know  that  nine-tenths  of 
those  the  university  sends  out  must  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers 
of  water;  but  if  I  train  the  ten-tenths  to  be  such,  then  the  wood 
will  be  badly  cut,  and  the  water  will  be  spilt.  Aim  at  something 
noble.  Make  )rour  system  of  education  such  that  a  great  man  may 
be  formed  by  it,  and  there  will  be  a  manhood  in  your  little  men 
of  which  you  did  not  dream."  The  value  and  true  serviceableness 
of  a  college  or  university  is  not  proportional  to  its  bigness  but  to 
the  character  and  durability  of  its  inspiration.  The  first  test  of 
its  merit  is  to  ask,  in  the  words  of  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  whether 
"die  Luft  der  Freiheit  wcht?" — are  the  winds  of  freedom  blowing? 

On  the  part  of  administration,  such  a  condition  is  to  be  secured 
mainly  by  wisdom  and  care  in  recruiting  the  faculty.  After  the 


*Cf.,  page  84. 

**Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York. 


410  FREEDOM   AND   RESPONSIBILITY 

prerequisite  scholarship,  the  fundamental  qualification  of  a  professor 
in  an  institution  for  higher  education  should  be  the  character  and 
enlightenment  that  restrains  men  from  abusing  legislative  power; 
and  there  should  be  among  them  some  who  share  the  feeling 
expressed  by  Fichte  in  one  of  his  lectures:  "I  frankly  confess  in 
the  position  in  which  Providence  has  placed  me  I  should  like  to 
contribute  something  to  diffuse  among  men  a  manlier  mode  of 
thought,  a  stronger  sense  of  dignity  and  worth,  a  more  ardent  zeal 
to  fulfill  their  mission  .  .  .;  so  that  when  you  will  have  left 
these  halls  and  will  have  been  scattered  over  the  entire  land,  I  shall 
know  you  to  be  men,  in  whatever  parts  of  the  world  you  may  live, 
men  whose  chosen  friend  is  truth;  who  receive  her  when  she  is 
driven  out  by  the  world ;  who  publicly  protect  her  when  she  is  slan- 
dered and  culminated."  It  was  some  years  ago,  before  matters 
had  reached  their  present  pass,  that  President  Andrew  D.  White 
said:  "The  preliminary  education  which  many  of  our  strongest 
men  have  received  leaves  them  simply  beasts  of  prey.  It  has 
sharpened  their  claws  and  whetted  their  tusks/'  The  period  of 
self-education,  if  it  is  ever  to  arrive,  arrives  naturally  about  the 
time  of  college  entrance.  It  is  most  important  that  parents  and 
instructors  should  understand  this.  They  should,  also,  know  that 
(using  Paulsen's  words)  :  "Freedom  is  the  pre-condition  of  self- 
education  and  culture.  Freedom  from  outward  compulsion  is, 
therefore,  the  symbol  of  student  days."  The  only  proper  problem 
is  how  to  arouse  in  the  inner  man  the  self-responsibility  that  is  the 
counterpart  of  freedom. 

This  problem  can  never  be  solved  by  the  sort  of  men  who  have 
brought  to  pass  (as  distinguished  from  those  who  have  weakly 
allowed  themselves  to  be  circumvented)  the  presently  prevailing 
arbitrary,  vascillating,  and  excessive  regulation.  Nor  will  it  ever 
be  solved  by  those  who  see  in  young  men  only  their  deficiencies  of 
information  and  experience,  and  cannot  discern  the  new-born 
powers:  unless  himself  a  man  of  rare  power  and  genius,  every 


DISTINCTION   BETWEEN    LAW   AND   EDICTS  411 

university  instructor  ought  to  recognize  in  a  few  of  his  students 
a  caliber  superior  to  his  own. 

It  is  one  of  the  many  contradictions  characteristic  of  the  present 
confusion  that  a  time  in  which  children  have  been  cast  out  to  an 
unprecedented  license,  is  marked  by  excessive  peremptoriness  toward 
young  men  and  adults  in  general.*  Members  of  college  faculties 
who  do  not  know  how  to  govern  little  daughters  as  to  how  often, 
at  what  hours,  and  in  what  company  they  go  to  picture  shows, 
have  undertaken  to  fix  the  number  of  times  a  young  man  may  call 
in  one  month  at  the  chapter  house  of  a  friend!  Many  so-called 
universities  have  surpassed  the  political  riot  of  law-making.  This 
fact,  I  take  it,  is  partly  due  to  their  seclusion  and  lack  of  respon- 
sibility. The  economic  effects  of  the  edicts  of  our  legislatures  puts 
some  curb  upon  the  political  law-makers. 

I  say  edicts  of  our  legislatures.  It  is  an  instance  of  the  conse- 
quences of  the  break  with  the  past  that  knowledge  of  what  has 
hitherto  been  the  meaning  of  law  no  longer  remains  among  those 
who  are  so  busily  putting  extemporaneous  edicts  in  the  place  of 


*0n  the  other  hand,  discrimination  has  been  grossly  lacking  in  some 
who  advocate  freedom  when  it  is  unseasonable  as  well  as  when  it  is 
seasonable.  If — say  such  heedless  ones — the  elective  system  and  self- 
responsibility  are  good  in  the  college,  they  must  be  good  in  the  high 
school  and  in  the  elementary  school.  So  are  nurtured  the  little  anarchists ; 
and  when  an  anxious  citizen  protests  against,  for  instance,  a  "strike"  by 
children  on  account  of  the  removal  of  a  teacher,  he  is  likely  (often  through 
mere  inexpertness )  to  extend  his  censure  to  the  free  election  of  studies 
in  colleges.  No  less  a  man  than  ex-President  Taft  recently  slipped  into 
this  identical  confusion:  "We  are  giving  our  boys  and  girls  too  much 
freedom.  .  .  .  We  have  had  the  ridiculous  exhibition  of  school  children 
striking  because  a  favorite  teacher  was  transferred  and  weak-minded 
parents  looking  with  pride  upon  the  courage  and  enterprise  of  their  off- 
spring. ...  A  mistake  of  the  same  kind  was  made  in  our  univer- 
sities in  the  adoption  of  the  general  optional  system."  Eminently  right 
is  his  censure  of  the  unseasonable  liberties;  but  it  may  at  least  be  said 
that,  whether  a  mistake  or  not,  freedom  of  study  in  universities  is  cer- 
tainly not  the  same  mistake.  The  best  general  answer  is  given  in  those 
words  of  ancient  wisdom:  "To  everything  there  is  a  season,  and  a  time 
to  every  purpose." 


412  DISTINCTION   BETWEEN    LAW   AND   EDICTS 

all  law.  They  do  not  know  what  classic  writers  mean  when  they 
speak  of  "reverence  for  law,"  or  of  "a  state  governed  by  law." 
Constitution  would  be  the  only  word  in  their  vocabulary  that  might 
suggest  the  meaning  of  law,  although  our  constitutions  have  come 
to  deal  so  much  with  particulars,  and  to  be,  therefore,  so  subject 
to  amendment,  that  they  are  almost  as  extemporaneous  as  the 
edicts  or  decrees  of  an  arbitrary  ruler.  The  supremacy  of  law 
means  essentially  the  protection  of  the  individual  and  minorities 
against  the  will  of  monarchs  or  majorities.  This  very  idea  has 
become  almost  incomprehensible  to  our  politicians  and  teachers  of 
civil  government.  Yet  all  tEe  old  phrases  about  reverence  for  law 
are  retained, — as  if  that  could  be  reverenced  which  is  always  on 
the  point  of  being  changed.*  Where  laws  are  revered  they  are 
changed  reverently.  It  becomes  necessary  from  time  to  time  to 
alter  laws  or  to  enact  new  laws,  but  where  there  is  any  right  con- 
ception of  law**  this  will  be  done  with  many  precautions  and  due 
deliberation. 

"This  distinction,"  says  M.  Faguet,  "between  true  law,  that  is 


*Our  federal  Congress  during  the  ten  years  ending  1909  considered 
146,471  bills  and  enacted  15,782.  During  the  same  period  the  British 
Parliament  considered  6251  bills  and  enacted  3822,  and  the  Parliament 
considers  and  acts  upon  a  great  many  subjects  not  dealt  with  by  the 
Congress.  Our  state  legislatures  and  direct  amending  of  state  constitu- 
tions add  enormously  to  the  pandemonium  of  emergency  proclamations. 
Yet  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  autonomy  reserved  for  the  States 
of  the  Union  was  the  only  bulwark  that  could  protect  a  republic  of  con- 
tinental extent  against  being  swept  by  one  plebiscite  into  disrupting  inno- 
vations. When  rash  reformers  have  precipitated  one  State  into  some  folly, 
its  bitter  experience  may  save  all  or  some  of  the  others  from  the  same 
mistake;  or  if  the  frenzy  spreads  from  State  to  State,  the  time  required 
allows  some  to  be  convalescing  before  others  are  infected.  This  principle 
is  expounded  in  classic  works  and  was  understood  several  generations  ago 
by  all  well  educated  men  and  was  familiar  to  a  great  many  of  the  unedu- 
cated. 

**"Owing  to  some  chance  arising  out  of  the  nature  rather  than  out  of 
the  intelligence  of  mankind,"  says  Montesquieu,  "it  is  sometimes  necessary 
to  alter  laws,  but  the  case  is  rare  and  when  it  does  arise  it  should  be 
handled  with  a  reverent  touch." 


DISTINCTION   BETWEEN    LAW   AND   EDICTS  413 

to  say,  venerable  law,  framed  to  endure,  a  part  of  a  co-ordinate 
scheme  of  legislation,  and  an  emergency  law  which  is  merely  a 
decree  like  the  wishes  of  a  tyrant,  constitutes  the  whole  difference, 
if  we  could  realize  it,  between  the  sociologists  of  antiquity  and 
those  of  to-day.  By  the  term  Law,  the  ancient  and  the  modern, 
sociologists  mean  two  different  things  and  this  is  the  reason  for 
so  many  misunderstandings.  When  he  speaks  of  law,  the  modern 
sociologist  means  the  expression  of  the  general  will  at  such  and 
such  a  date,  1910,  for  instance.  The  ancient  sociologist  would 
consider  that  the  expression  of  the  general  will  in  the  second  year 
of  the  73rd  Olympiad  was  not  law  at  all  but  a  decree.  ...  A 
'constitution/  therefore,  to  adopt  Aristotle's  terminology,  is  a  state 
which  obeys  laws,  that  is  to  say,  laws  framed  by  its  ancestors."* 


'Describing  present  conditions  in  France,  Faguet  says:  "New  laws  are 
made  for  every  little  daily  incident  in  politics.  .  .  .  The  dominant 
faction  only  makes  laws  to  protect  itself  against  an  adversary  who  is,  or 
is  thought  to  be,  already  in  the  field,  or  it  introduces  a  hurried,  ill- 
digested  reform  under  the  pressure  of  an  alleged  scandal.  .  .  .  Every- 
thing that  happens  in  the  morning  is  dealt  with  in  the  evening  as  it 
might  be  in  the  village  pot-house.  The  legislative  chamber  is  an  exag- 
gerated reflection  of  the  gossiping  public.  Now  it  ought  not  to  be  a  copy 
of  the  country,  it  ought  to  be  its  soul  and  brain.  But  when  a  national 
representative  assembly  represents  only  the  passions  of  the  populace  it 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  what  it  is.  In  other  words,  modern  democracy 
is  not  governed  by  laws  but  by  decrees,  for  emergency  laws  are  no  better 
than  decrees.  A  law  is  a  heritage,  consecrated  by  long  usage,  which  men 
obey  without  stopping  to  think  whether  it  be  law  or  custom.  It  forms 
part  of  a  coherent,  harmonious,  and  logical  whole.  A  law  improvised  for 
an  emergency  is  merely  a  decree.  This  is  one  of  the  things  that  Aristotle 
saw  better  than  anyone.  He  comments  frequently  upon  the  essential  and 
fundamental  distinction  between  the  two,  and  explains  how  it  is  as  dan- 
gerous to  misunderstand  as  to  ignore  it.  I  quote  the  passage  where  he 
brings  this  out  most  forcibly :  'A  fifth  form  of  democracy  is  that  in  which 
not  the  law  but  the  multitude  has  the  supreme  power,  and  supersedes 
the  law  by  its  decrees.  This  is  a  state  of  affairs  brought  about  by  the 
demagogues.  .  .  .  The  many  have  the  power  in  their  hands,  not  as 
individuals  but  collectively.  .  .  .  And  the  people,  who  is  now  a  mon- 
arch, and  no  longer  under  the  control  of  law,  seeks  to  exercise  monarchical 
sway,  and  grows  into  a  despot;  the  flatterer  is  held  in  honour,  this  sort 
of  democracy  being  relatively  to  other  democracies  what  tyranny  is  to 


WHERE   THE   WINDS   OF    FREEDOM   BLOW 

Although,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  there  was  a  necessity  for  a 
new  constitution  to  begin  a  new  order,  George  Washington  and 
Alexander  Hamilton  and  Thomas  Jefferson  had  substantially  the 
same  conception  of  law  as  Aristotle.  Objection  to  change  as  such 
is  almost  as  foolish  as  contempt  of  the  established  as  such;  but, 
evidently,  the  obligation  rests  upon  innovators  to  understand  and 
to  consider  the  purpose  and  effect  of  any  institution  they  propose 
to  abrogate.  Today  the  majority  of  those  who  lecture  officially  or 
gratuitously  about  civil  government  and  civic  duties  appear  to  be 
as  ignorant  as  they  are  contemptuous  of  nearly  every  consensus 
sapientum  in  the  sphere  of  their  rash  adventures. 

In  the  atmosphere  of  an  unspoiled  university — in  which  the 
winds  of  freedom  are  blowing,  the  faculty  depends,  and  depends 
safely,  on  the  older  students  to  be  the  most  effective  influence  for 
the  right  guidance  and  control  of  student  life.  Even  in  regard 
to  the  choice  of  studies,  "sensible  older  fellow-students,"  as  Paulsen 
says,  "are  the  most  accessible  and  perhaps  also  the  best  advisers.'5 
Cardinal  Newman,  in  his  lectures  on  the  nature  of  university  edu- 
cation, explains  how  "the  youthful  community  will  constitute  a 
whole, — administer  a  code  of  conduct,  and  furnish  principles  of 
thought  and  action."  "It  will  give  birth  to  a  living  teaching 
which  in  course  of  time  will  take  the  shape  of  a  self-perpetuating 
tradition,  or  a  genius  loci  which  haunts  the  home  where  it  has  been 
born,  and  which  imbues  and  forms,  more  or  less,  and  one  by  one, 
every  individual  who  is  successively  brought  under  its  shadow." 
Of  course,  instruction  by  and  close  personal  contact  with  the  mem- 
bers of  a  free  and  competent  faculty  are  the  paramount  forces  in 
the  right  development  of  the  student;  but  when  a  youth  enters  a 

other  forms  of  monarchy.  The  spirit  of  both  is  the  same,  and  they  alike 
exercise  a  despotic  rule.  .  .  .  The  demagogues  make  the  decrees  of  the 
people  override  the  laws,  and  refer  all  things  to  the  popular  assembly. 
.  .  .  Such  a  democracy  is  fairly  open  to  the  objection  that  it  is  not  a 
constitution  at  all.  ...  If  democracy  be  a  real  form  of  government, 
the  sort  of  constitution  in  which  all  things  are  regulated  by  decrees  is 
clearly  not  a  democracy  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.' " 


GENUINE  ADVANCE  BEYOND  SECONDARY  SCHOOL      415 

university  the  time*  has  come  for  him  to  form  himself  into  an 
independent  personality.  If  such  development  is  ever  to  take  place 
in  him,  it  must  come  through  Ms  own  self -activity  and  (generally) 
before  he  is  twenty  years  old.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  liberty 
must  be  given.  The  student  years  in  a  true  university  ought  to  be 
freer  from  external  compulsion  than  any  later  years  of  business 
and  family  duties  can  be,  because  the  youth  must  be  exposed  to 
freedom  at  this  stage  if  independent  personality  is  to  exist  among 
grown  men.  As  Paulsen  explains:  "The  pupil  in  the  high  school 
has  a  definite  amount  of  work  assigned  to  him  every  day;  the 
university  student  selects  his  field  of  study,  his  university,  his 
teachers,  and  the  lectures  to  be  taken.  And  he  also  assumes  an 
independent  critical  attitude  towards  what  he  hears  or  reads." 
We  have  in  this  not  a  choice  but  a  necessity  if  any  genuine  advance 
beyond  the  high  school  is  to  be  made.  There  is  no  other  way. 
If  you  keep  the  young  men  pupils,  you  cannot  have  any  students 
at  all. 

It  only  remains  for  the  university  teacher  to  inspire,  by  the 
value  and  force  of  what  he  offers,  that  industry  which  is  the  best 
safeguard  against  all  minor  vices;  and  to  inculcate,  chiefly  by  his 
own  life  and  character,  that  self-restraint,  self-reliance,  and  re- 
spect for  the  personality,  liberty,  and  privacy  of  others,  upon 
which  all  great  virtues  are  founded. 

The  objections  offered  against  freedom  to  choose  studies  are 
thoroughly  characteristic.  It  is  said  that  the  youths  will  choose 
worthless  "snap"  courses  if  not  compelled  to  do  otherwise.  Com- 
pelled by  whom?  By  the  men  who  authorize  or  deliver  those 
worthless  courses !  It  would  be  to  laugh,  were  the  issues  less  grave. 
The  predicament  is  not  helped  by  the  mere  fact  that  there  yet 
remain  in  every  faculty  men  who  offer  worthy  courses;  for  until 
the  present  tide  is  reversed,  the  same  majorities  that  now  authorize 
credits  for  degrees  for  the  "snap"  courses  would  dictate  all  pre- 


*Cf.,  pp.  270-272. 


416  A   SUICIDAL   MISTAKE 

Scriptions.  There  can  be  no  remedy  until  the  strong  men  and 
genuine  scholars  will  rouse  themselves  from  their  slough  of  despond, 
and — instead  of  saying  "What's  the  use?"  and  absenting  them- 
selves from  faculty  meetings  or  sitting  silent  as  deans  introduce 
incessant  vagaries — will  study  this  matter  and  then  boldly  denounce 
all  foolishness  and  deceit,  and  resist  the  log-rolling  for  numbers  by 
misgoverned  department?.  Unless  the  proper  men  find  courage  to 
do  this,  they  will  soon  find  as  little  of  outward  respect  for  their  call- 
ing as  they  now  have  of  inner  satisfaction.  To  talk  about  confining 
his  interest  to  his  science  and  letting  his  university  go  to  the  dogs, 
is  not  only  a  craven  policy,  but  also  a  suicidal  mistake  by  every 
man  who  has  thus  closed  his  ears  to  the  call  for  resistance.  The 
case  is  desperate  for  the  majority  of  state  -universities  (and  .ill 
universities  are  more  or  less  involved)  unless  such  men  will  rise 
from  their  lethargy.  They  are  able  to  whip  out  the  trafficers  and 
money  changers  from  their  temple;  but  to  do  so  they  must  feel 
that  just  indignation  which  puts  coward  fear  far  from  a  man. 

In  regard  to  personal  conduct,  attendance  on  exercises  and  lec- 
tures, etc.,  the  need  of  proper  modifications  for  the  undergraduates 
in  American  universities  has  been  pointed  out.  Eeasonable  regu- 
lations for  dormitories  and  requirements  for  regular  attendance 
are  proper  for  "freshmen";  but  care  should  be  taken  to  allow 
increasing  freedom  so  that  the  "seniors"  may  go  naturally  to  the 
full  freedom  that  belongs  to  the  later  stages  of  university  life  and 
work.  As  I  have  stated,  the  proper  problem  for  the  faculty  in 
this  matter  is  how  to  arouse  the  self-responsibility  which  is  the 
right  counterpart  of  freedom;  and  this  general  view  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  must  be  closed  with  the  following  passages  from 
Professor  Paulsen's  book: 

"Responsibility  is  the  correlate  of  this  freedom.  The  less  of  external 
compulsion  there  is,  the  more  imperative  is  the  duty  of  self-control.  Who- 
ever confounds  freedom  with  license,  misunderstands  its  meaning;  it  is 
given  to  the  individual  not  that  he  may  do  as  he  pleases,  but  that  he 
may  learn  to  govern  himself. 


DANGERS  TO  BE  CONFRONTED  417 

"The  danger  of  missing  the  right  road  is  not  small.  Many  do  not  know 
exactly  what  to  do  with  their  time;  they  try  one  thing,  then  another; 
glance  into  this  science  and  then  into  that  one;  pick  up  one  piece  of 
work,  then  another,  only  to  drop  it  again.  We  ought  not  to  judge  of  this 
attitude  too  harshly.  Not  infrequently  such  a  state  of  vacillation  is  due 
to  an  instinctive  desire  to  come  into  touch  with  things  and  men;  the  time 
is  not  lost  if  the  nature  of  the  student  is  broadened  and  he  gradually 
succeeds  in  discovering  what  is  suited  to  him.  Sensible  older  fellow- 
students  who  have  gone  through  the  same  experience  and  have  found 
themselves,  are  the  most  accessible  and  perhaps  also  the  best  advisers. 

"Others  are  encouraged  by  such  freedom  and  the  difficulty  of  making 
a  start,  to  abandon  themselves,  for  the  time  being,  to  taste  the  joys  and 
pleasures  of  student  life  in  an  indiscriminate  and  aimless  sort  of  fashion. 
That,  too,  may  be  pardoned..  .  .  In  case  new  and  vigorous  impulses  for 
work  spring  up  after  a  moderate  period  of  rest  and  abandon,  .  .  .  the 
experience  will  not  be  without  its  value,  teaching  that  it  is  not  possible 
to  ground  one's  life  and  happiness  upon  love  of  pleasure. 

"The  danger  becomes  acute  when,  accustoming  himself  to  a  life  without 
work  and  duties,  the  student  gradually  sinks  into  a  state  of  inertia,  which, 
occasionally  interrupted  by  good  resolutions  and  futile  attempts  to  carry 
them  out,  finally  degenerates  into  a  kind  of  chronic  exhaustion  of  the  will. 
It  is  a  danger  to  which  the  more  indolent  natures  are  exposed  in  our 
system.  The  suddenness  of  the  transition  from  the  long,  rigid  cur- 
riculum of  the  school  [see  pp.  408-409]  to  the  absolute  freedom  of  a 
course  of  study  wholly  left  to  the  individual's  own  judgment  and  energy, 
helps  to  magnify  the  danger.  And  then  the  feelings  of  discontent  and 
weariness  which  are  inseparably  connected  with  a  life  of  idleness  lead  to 
the  use  of  the  various  narcotics  by  means  of  which  human  beings  seek 
to  disguise  the  inner  emptiness  of  their  lives.  Fichte  has  described  this 
phenomenon:  'Laziness  is  the  source  of  all  vices.  To  enjoy  as  much  as 
possible  and  to  do  as  little  work  as  possible,  that  is  the  problem  of  the 
depraved  nature,  and  the  many  attempts  which  are  made  to  solve  it  are 
the  vices  of  the  same.'  .  .  . 

"I  mention  still  another  danger  of  freedom;  the  degeneration  of  youth- 
ful exuberance  into  spiritual  unbridledness  and  unrestraint.  Goethe  de- 
scribes it  in  the  second  part  of  Faust.  .  .  .  Wuo  will  not  think  of 
Nietzsche?  .  .  .  It  is  true  the  fermentation  of  the  student  days  evap- 


418  HONEST   DEGREES 

orates,   not   infrequently   with  astonishing   rapidity;    but   the  wine   is  in 
consequence  often  not  the  best.     .     .     . 

"It  is  enough  to  have  suggested  the  false  and  deceptive  notions  of  free- 
dom. True,  freedom  is  that  alone  which  Plato  contrasts  with  the  un- 
bridledness  of  desires;  the  rule  of  the  divine  part  of  the  soul  over  the 
lusts  and  desires,  the  feelings  and  passions  of  the  'irrational'  part.  The 
purpose  of  academic  freedom  is  to  achieve  this  inner  freedom  in  the  battle 
with  oneself  and  one's  environment." 

If  the  right  general  principles  be  comprehended  particulars  will 
usually  be  rightly  determined.  Also,  the  majority  of  the  men  who 
have  participated  in  the  particular  mistakes  referred  to  in  this 
book  are  quite  able  to  apply  any  fundamental  principle  clearly 
understood  by  them.  But  they  have  not  taken  the  trouble  to 
reflect  comprehensively  upon  these  matters.  They  are  responsible 
for  them,  but  they  have  timidly  surrendered  them  to  officious  per- 
sons whose  aim  is  ever-increasing  numbers  and  whose  method  con- 
sists in  floundering  appeals  for  popularity. 

It  might  naturally  occur  to  one  familiar  with  the  inner  currents 
of  university  affairs,  that  the  main  temptation  to  innumerable 
errors  would  be  removed  at  one  stroke  if  the  undergraduate  degree 
were  abolished.  Hypothetical ly  that  is  true;  and,  of  course,  Ger- 
many does  very  well  without  baccalaureate  degrees.  It  would  be 
comparatively  easy  for  honest  men  and  scholars  to  uphold  a  fair 
standard  for  the  doctorate  if  the  preceding  period  and  work  were 
not  corrupted  by  the  prizes-for-all  policy.  But  no  such  simple 
remedy  is  practicable.  Little  as  the  fact  is  recognized  by  present- 
day  reformers,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  break  away  from  an  insti- 
tution that  has  grown  up  in  the  life  of  a  people,  unless  it  be  a 
matter  over  which  popular  passions  have  been  excited.  In  this  case 
probably  the  only  way  out  is  to  be  honest  in  administering  the 
degrees  which  custom  requires  of  our  universities. 

In  its  inner  management  every  college  and  university  is  contin- 
ually on  trial  in  this  matter,  but  many  of  them  were  recently  put 
to  an  open  test  by  an  inquiry  submitted  to  a  large  number  of  col- 


HONEST   DEGREES  419 

leges  and  universities  (from  a  conference  between  their  own  rep- 
resentatives and  representatives  of  a  number  of  medical  schools), 
asking  each  whether  it  would  be  willing  to  make  arrangements  to 
confer  its  A.  B.  degree  on  ex-students  who  completed  "two  or  three 
years'  college  work  and  one  or  two  years  in  a  Class  A  plus  medical 
school."  Prompt  responses  were  not  numerous,  but  they  were 
typical.  One  answered  that  it  was  already  following  the  plan 
with  one  medical  school  and  would  be  pleased  to  make  similar 
arrangements  with  any  school  of  the  class  mentioned;  other  re- 
sponses made  by  presidents  were  pro  and  con;  one  university  faculty 
took  action,  and  sent  the  following  admirable  answer: 

Be  it  resolved,     .     .     ., 

1.  That  we  are  glad,  in  so  far  as  it  is  possible,  to  arrange  our  courses 
in  biology,  chemistry,   and  physics   so  as  to  meet  the   admission  require- 
ments of  the  best  medical  colleges.     That  we  are  now  doing  this  is  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  our  graduates  are  readily  admitted  to  the  medical 
school  of  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

2.  That   we    will    co-operate    with    the   medical    schools    in   every   Avay 
practicable  to  eliminate  duplication  of  work  in  college  and  medical  school 
whenever  such  duplication  exists. 

3.  That  we   do   not  regard   a  year   in  a  medical   school   as  having  the 
same    purpose    or   being   in   any    sense   equivalent   to   the   senior  year    in 
college;   that  we  regard  the  two  fields  of  education  as  essentially  different 
and  distinct.     We  are  therefore  opposed  to  any  plan  whereby  the  bachelor's 
degree    shall   be   given   upon    the    completion   of   less    than   four  years   of 
college  work. 

This  institution  stood  the  test.  Its  sane  and  faithful  action  is 
not  only  pleasing  but  also  encouraging,  because  the  majority  of 
the  institutions  waited,  perhaps,  to  see  "how  the  cat  would  jump" 
and  some  of  them  may  be  strengthened  to  be  likewise  faithful. 
The  medical  schools,  like  other  professional  schools,  do  confront 
a  serious  difficulty  in  the  inordinate  time  required  by  the  usual 
public  school  system  and  college  course  combined.  But  how  would 
that  real  difficulty  and  abuse  be  remedied  by  conferring  an  un- 
earned academic  degree?  If  a  student  goes  to  a  medical  school 


420  A   SUGGESTION   TO   UNDERGRADUATE    STUDENTS 

after  only  freshman  and  sophomore  college  work,  or  without  senior 
work,  the  true  worth  of  his  preparation  for  the  given  medical 
studies,  and  of  the  latter  themselves,  are  what  they  are;  he  receives 
the  M.  D.  degree.  Why,  in  the  name  of  honesty,  should  anyone 
wish  the  college  degree  to  be  gratuitously  added?  Such  immoral- 
ity would  not  be  possible  in  reputable  institutions,  or  in  normal 
young  men,  except  as  the  consequence  of  an  insidious  corruption 
wrought  by  the  theory  and  practice  exposed  and  discussed  in  pages 
333  to  349  of  the  last  preceding  chapter.  Real  remedies  have  also 
been  explained — pages  387  to  398  (especially  page  391)  and  pages 
353  to  357.  The  eight-years  elementary  school  has  been  our 
colossal  error :  two  years  are  worse  than  wasted  there.  Also,  proper 
freedom  and  "credit  for  quality"  (according  to  the  plan  of  the 
University  of  Missouri,  for  instance)  would  allow  the  undergrad- 
uate degree  to  be  earned  by  men  of  sufficient  ability  in  three  years. 
There  is  nothing  sacred  about  the  four  college  years  as  a  period 
of  time.  It  merely  means,  or  ought  to  mean,  that  fairly  strong 
students  may  do  the  work  in  four  years.  It  ought  to  be  a  corollary 
that  exceptionally  strong  students  might  finish  in  three  years; 
that  any  attentive  student  might  fail  without  reprimand  or  re- 
proach and  might  repeat  diligent  efforts  to  win  credits  as  long  as 
he  desired;  and  that  decidedly  weak  students  should  never  receive 
degrees  at  all.  Negligence  at  earlier  stages  should  be  subject  to 
discipline;  later,  unless  wanton  and  excessive,  it  need  receive  only 
its  natural  penalty  of  failure.  Undesirable  students  would  elimi- 
nate themselves  from  strong  courses  (and  so  from  the  institution) 
far  more  effectively  than  deans  eliminate  them  from  cheapened 
courses  by  "dropping"  a  few  scapegoats. 

If  I  may  address  only  one  word  directly  to  undergraduate  stu- 
dents, I  will  submit  a  suggestion  of  the  importance  of  the  industry 
of  the  minute  not  only  for  ease  and  success  in  college  studies,  but 
as  a  life  habit.  It  is,  also,  at  even'  stage  of  life,  the  best  guard 
against  all  minor  vices.  If  this  item  of  life-wisdom  be  heeded  in 


GRADUATE   DIVISION  421 

youth,  both  the  accomplishment  and  the  pleasures  of  life  will  be 
greatly  enlarged.  Among  the  younger  generation  of  men  who 
profess  scholarship  I  observe  some  who  have  never  read  a  great 
book  and  few  books  of  any  sort.  They  have  looked  at  passages 
in  some  great  books  and  have  read  articles  about  them,  but  a 
whole  volume  is  too  much  for  them.  Had  such  men  learned  how 
to  use  the  minutes,  this  intellectual  timidity  would  not  have  weak- 
ened them  as  it  has,  nor  would  they  as  teachers  have  brought  up  a 
generation  of  students  who  would  be  dismayed  if  a  book  were 
assigned  for  collateral  reading — students  who  expect  only  a  para- 
graph on  a  given  page  to  be  assigned  and  not  too  many  of  them. 
This  attitude  and  practice  has  developed  many  men  who  try  to 
pass  off  rumors  of  culture  and  scholarship,  gathered  from  magazines 
and  fragmentary  references  to  the  literature  of  special  subjects,  in 
place  of  the  vital  and  comprehensive  grasp  which  could  easily  have 
been  attained  by  better  courage  and  the  industry  of  the  minute. 
Most  men  have  had  plenty  of  time  during  youth  to  read,  independ- 
ently of  school  or  college  tasks,  all  the  greatest  monuments  of 
universal  literature  (which  is  the  surest  way  to  become  a  free  and 
strong  man),  and  during  manhood  to  read  all  the  most  important 
masterpieces  of  their  specialties — re-reading  the  while  everything 
in  the  former  pasturage  that  appealed  most  vitally,  as  recalled  in 
after  life.  Every  important  book  should  be  read  (at  least  for  the 
first  time)  as  an  organic  whole;  no  great  or  valuable  work  can  be 
otherwise  comprehended.  With  the  industry  of  the  minute,  youth 
and  man  may  do  all  this  and  yet  give  much  more  time  to  gracious 
intercourse  with  friends  and  family  and  to  rejuvenating  relaxations 
than  is  usual  in  our  present  civilization. 

Graduate  Division. 

Eecognition  of  the  fact  that  post-baccalaureate  studies  and  re- 
search are  an  essential  feature  of  a  university  came  slowly  in  this 
country.  The  principle  is  no  longer  disputed,  though  practice  lags 
sadly.  The  Association  of  American  Universities  requires  a  strong 


422  GRADUATE   DIVISION 

(comparatively)   graduate  division  as  the  chief  qualification  for 
membership. 

Advantages  of  the  commingling  of  undergraduate  and  post-grad- 
uate students  have  been  indicated  in  a  previous  chapter.*  Presi- 
dent Eliot  always  championed  this  principle.  He  says,  in  discuss- 
ing the  elective  system: 

"It  is  another  object  of  a  broad  elective  system  to  mix  students  of  the 
different  college  classes  together,  and  to  mix  graduates  with  undergrad- 
uates. .  .  .  Almost  every  course  of  instruction  largely  resorted  to  in 
colleges  where  the  elective  system  is  broad  contains  graduates,  members 
of  all  the  college  classes,  and  special  students  all  mixed  together.  .  .  . 
This  mixing  of  students  of  different  ages,  and  different  academic  status, 
is  an  unqualified  advantage;  provided  that  all  are  united  in  a  common 
purpose  to  master  the  course  they  are  attending.  .  .  .  The  correct- 
ness of  the  principle  laid  down  by  anticipation  in  1872  [at  Harvard]  has 
been  abundantly  demonstrated.  Graduate  and  undergraduate  students  are 
to  be  found  together  in  scores  of  the  courses  of  instruction  now  [1908] 
offered  by  Harvard  University.  .  .  .  The  grouping  of  students  of  vari- 
ous ages  and  various  academic  standing  by  their  subjects  of  study  has 
certain  valuable  social  effects.  It  leads  to  intercourse  among  students 
based  on  like  tastes  and  intellectual  interests.  There  is  no  better  starting 
point  for  a  college  friendship  than  sympathy  in  an  intellectual  pursuit, 
or  than  a  common  devotion  to  an  interesting  teacher.  ...  A  pre- 
scribed course  alike  for  all  leaves  no  freedom  to  the  student  in  his  studies, 
and  imposes  on  him  no  responsibility.  Here  as  everywhere  else,  it  is  only 
under  a  rggims  of  liberty  that  the  individual  can  acquire  the  capacity 
for  self-direction  and  self-control,  and  the  sense  of  responsibility  for  his 
own  conduct.  A  college  in  which  a  good  elective  system  prevails  furnishes 
instruction  in  great  variety,  offers  guidance  and  aid  in  the  work  of  the 
student,  and  holds  rigid  examinations;  but  it  throws  the  responsibility 
of  selecting  his  fields  of  work  on  the  student  himself." 

True  university  teaching  does  not  deal  necessarily  with  advanced 
subjects,  but  consists  in  treating  even  elementary  subjects  in  an 
advanced  (that  is,  philosophical  and  scientific)  way.  There  ought 

•See  pp.  283-286.     Cf.,  also,  p.  328. 


DEPARTMENTAL   RESPONSIBILITIES  423 

to  be  no  other  sort  of  teaching  in  a  college.  As  far  as  my  observa- 
tion goes,  only  men  who  do  no  true  university  teaching  hold  that 
a  course  (when  it  has  no  definitely  prerequisite  course,  or  none  such 
has  been  omitted)  cannot  be  suited  to  students  of  different  rank. 
I  have  never  heard  a  university  professor — or  a  preacher — who  com- 
plained of  his  trouble  to  avoid  "talking  over  the  heads"  of  his 
hearers,  whose  hearers  did  not  complain  that  he  hit  them  "below 
the  belt."  The  college  teacher  who  has  never  noticed  that  some 
freshmen  are  stronger  and  more  mature  than  some  seniors  is  a 
poor  judge  of  intellectual  ability.  In  the  graduate  division,  as 
at  previous  stages,  the  need  is  not  for  arbitrary  statutes  but  for 
worthy  courses.  Offer  strong  courses  of  instruction  and  research, 
worthy  of  credits  for  the  Ph.  D.  degree,  and  do  not  give  unearned 
credits, — and  everything  will  take  care  of  itself  to  far  better  effect 
than  could  result  from  any  arbitrary  requirements  whatsoever 
about  the  rank  of  students  to  be  admitted.  Unprepared  students 
would  seldom  attend  such  courses;  and  if  a  course  be  worthy  of 
credit  toward  the  doctorate,  certainly  there  can  be  no  valid  objec- 
tion to  crediting  it  toward  the  baccalaureate. 

Intrkisic  prerequisites  for  every  course  should  be  upheld  by 
the  department  concerned.  If  a  department,  whether  from  de- 
ficient scholarship  or  lack  of  sound  morality,  is  unable  or  unwill- 
ing to  do  this,  there  is  DO  remedy  except  to  recruit  its  faculty 
with  better  men — provided  the  organization  of  the  department  is 
as  it  ought  to  be.*  Of  course  in  many  cases  the  department  is 
organized  to  give  a  "head  of  the  department"  dictatorial  power, 
with  associates  divested  of  power  and  responsibility;  first  correct 
such  malorganization,  and  the  same  men  may  promptly  develop 
sound  policies  and  practice. 

Responsibility  for  the  instruction  and  the  research  and  the  poli- 
cies of  each  department  should  in  due  part  be  imposed  upon  and 
fulfilled  by  every  member  of  its  staff.  This  is  the  essential  prin- 


*See  section  Department  Organization,  Chapter  V. 


424  DEPARTMENTAL   ORGANIZATION 

ciple,  and  any  form  of  organization  that  precludes  this  proper 
relation  will  cause  (in  the  long  run)  all  the  disorders  manifested 
separately  and  at  various  stages  in  the  particular  cases  presented 
by  many  different  universities.  A  travesty  of  this  principle  is 
often  voiced  in  sentimental  drivel  by  some  upholders  of  the  con- 
tradictory usurpation,  when  they  protest  how  much  they  wish 
their  powerless  subordinates  would  "feel"  an  interest  in  the  de- 
partment and  in  the  university,  and  so  forth.  The  true  principle 
is  no  such  soft  affair;  also,  if  rational  interest  and  responsibility 
were  felt,  the  proper  reform  would  be  stoutly  demanded  and 
quickly  obtained.  Those  who  do  the  university's  essential  work 
should  constitute  the  primary  source  of  authority,  conditioned 
only  by  the  state  or  community  or  corporation  maintaining  the 
institution.  The  proper  relation  between  the  state  or  corpora- 
tion and  the  faculty  is  the  natural  foundation  for  right  organiza- 
tion; and  faculty  participation  in  the  government  of  universities 
is,  therefore,  the  most  fundamental  of  all  needed  reforms.*  The 
internal  abuses  of  departmental  organization  are  more  preposter- 
ous, but  they  are  less  fundamental  and  could  be  far  more  easily 
corrected. 

The  following  extract  from  an  article  by  Professor  J.  B.  John- 
ston. University  of  Minnesota,  describes  characteristic  vices  that 
tend  to  develop  out  of  the  prevalent  departmental  organization. 
It  was  not  given  in  Chapter  V,  because  (through  the  deferred 
and  impeded  completion  of  this  work)  that  chapter  was  printed 
before  his  article  was  published  in  Science,  December  26,  1913. 
It  is  pertinent,  however,  again  at  this  point.  As  shown  in  Chap- 
ter V,  some  of  our  strongest  universities  have  recently  reorganized 
their  departments  in  the  way  we  advise.  Also,  the  reader  will 
understand  that  the  conditions  described  by  Professor  Johnston 
are  in  many  cases  only  partially  realized.  His  generalizations, 

*See  pp.  118-135. 


DEPARTMENTAL   ORGANIZATION  425 

however,  truly  indicate  the  tendency  of  the  form  of  organization 
in  question,  and  are  fully  experienced  in  some  typical  cases. 

"A  head  of  department  may  carry  on  for  years  policies  which  are  not 
approved  by  a  single  member  of  his  staff;  may  absent  himself  from  all 
teaching ;  may  neglect  'to  do  any  research  work  or  contribute  anything  to 
the  advancement  of  his  science;  may  pursue  constantly  a  policy  of  selfish 
aggrandizement  for  which  the  department  suffers  both  in  the  esteem  of  the 
university  and  in  the  decrease  of  scientific  work  which  the  members  of 
staff  can  do;  may  deliberately  sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  students  to 
his  personal  ambitions,  and  may  in  these  ways  cause  constant  friction  and 
great  waste  of  energy  throughout  the  college — all  this  while  maintaining 
a  pretense,  or  even  a  belief,  that  he  is  a  most  public-spirited  and  useful 
member  of  the  faculty.  The  head  may  conduct  his  department  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  research  impossible  and  even  drive  men  out  of  his  depart- 
ment because  they  do  research,  all  the  while  that  he  himself  talks  of  the 
importance  of  research.  .  .  .  He  may  suppress  the  individualism  of 
his  staff  members,  ignore  any  suggestions  which  they  may  make,  and  dis- 
miss them  if  they  insist  upon  their  ideas.  He  may  falsify  the  reports  as 
to  the  teaching  and  other  work  done  by  himself  and  by  members  of  his 
staff.  If  subordinate  members  of  the  staff  have  different  ideas  as  to  the 
conduct  of  the  department  they  are  overruled  by  the  head,  and  if  any  ques- 
tion of  bad  policy  or  of  injustice  is  brought  to  the  stage  of  investigation 
by  the  president,  that  officer  is  governed  by  the  principle  that  all  matters 
of  testimony  must  be  construed  by  him  in  a  light  as  favorable  as  pos- 
sible to  the  head  of  the  department.  The  president  is  bound  to  do  this 
because  he  is  dependent  upon  his  heads  of  departments  for  information, 
advice,  and  executive  assistance.  The  'heads  of  departments'  thus  become 
a  system  which  involves  the  president  and  from  the  toils  of  which  he  can 
not  easily  extricate  himself. 

"It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  in  some  departments  no 
member  of  staff  is  asked  for  his  opinions  or  is  encouraged  to  hold  or  ex- 
press independent  views,  that  younger  members  of  the  faculty  commonly 
dare  not  express  themselves  publicly  or  go  to  the  president  or  dean  in 
matters  in  which  they  differ  from  the  heads  of  their  departments,  and 
that  generally  the  department  head  assumes  that  the  decision  of  any  ques- 
tion resides  with  the  'responsible  head,'  regardless  of  the  views  of  his 
subordinates.  There  is  no  way  in  which  the  members  of  staff  can  influ- 


426  DEPARTMENTAL  ORGANIZATION 

ence  the  policy  of  their  department,  there  is  no  channel  by  which  the 
facts  can  be  brought  effectively  to  the  notice  of  the  president  or  govern- 
ing board,  and  there  is  no  assurance  in  our  present  form  of  organization 
that  the  welfare  of  the  staff  or  their  opinions  as  to  the  welfare  of  the 
university  would  receive  consideration  if  opposed  to  the  desires  of  the 
department  head.  .  .  . 

"These  heads  have  in  consequence  come  into  control  of  the  sources  of 
information  to  the  executive,  have  jealously  guarded  their  great  powers, 
and  are  able  to  direct  departmental  and  university  policies  through  hold- 
ing the  president  in  ignorance  and  their  subordinates  in  contempt.  In 
other  words,  university  control  has  come  to  be  vested  in  a  system  of 
irresponsible  heads  of  departments.  .  .  .  Its  more  serious  effects  are 
that  it  lowers  the  efficiency  and  the  moral  and  spiritual  tone  of  the  whole 
institution,  that  it  wastes  the  time  and  energy  of  whole  staffs  in  order 
that  the  head  may  take  his  ease  or  satisfy  his  ambitions.  Moreover,  tak- 
ing away  from  faculty  members  the  responsibility  for  the  conception  and 
execution  of  university  policies  is  the  best  possible  way  to  break  down 
the  practical  efficiency  of  these  men  and  to  reduce  the  college  professor 
by  a  process  of  natural  selection  to  the  impractical,  inexperienced  hireling 
that  he  is  popularly  supposed  to  be.  Whether  this  is  in  part  the  cause 
of  the  wretched  teaching  which  is  done  in  our  universities  and  of  the 
lack  of  standards  of  work  and  of  character  for  the  student,  I  leave  you 
to  judge.  .  .  . 

"The  internal  organization  of  the  university  should  have  reference 
solely  to  efficiency  in  teaching  and  research.  The  organization  should  be 
created  by  the  members  of  the  staff  by  virtue  of  their  sovereign  powers 
within  the  institution.  The  first  natural  subdivision  of  the  university  is 
that  into  departments  based  upon  the  relations  of  the  fields  of  knowledge. 
The  process  of  subdivision  of  subjects  and  creation  of  new  departments 
has  gone  too  far  and  must  be  reversed.  Under  the  old  order  of  things 
the  only  way  for  a  man  of  parts  to  gain  recognition  and  influence  which 
he  was  capable  of  using,  was  to  become  the  head  of  a  department  or  the 
dean  of  a  college.  This  accounts  for  the  creation  of  many  new  depart- 
ments and  schools  for  which  there  was  no  need.  Administration  could  be 
simplified,  duplication  of-  work,  apparatus,  books,  and  supplies  could  be 
avoided,  and  a  closer  correlation  and  a  better  spirit  and  more  stimulus 
to  scholarly  work  could  be  secured  by  the  creation  of  larger  departments 
based  on  close  relationship  of  subject-matter. 


DEPARTMENTAL   ORGANIZATION  427 

"The  staff  of  such  large  departments  might  number  ten,  twenty,  or 
more  men.  In  the  nature  of  things  the  organization  within  such  a  de- 
partment is  based  upon  the  personal  interest  of  each  member  of  the  staff 
in  the  success  and  welfare  of  the  department,  and  its  object  should  be  to 
place  the  resources  of  the  department  in  the  fullest  degree  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  student  and  to  facilitate  research.  These  things  can  be 
secured  only  where  there  is  harmony  among  the  staff  and  where  the  ideas 
of  the  staff  are  carried  out  in  the  administration  of  the  department. 

"All  important  business  should  be  done  in  staff  meetings.  The  chair- 
man should  administer  department  affairs  according  to  the  decisions  and 
by  the  authority  of  the  staff  and  should  represent  the  staff  in  relations 
with  other  departments.  Within  the  department  there  should  be  the 
greatest  practical  freedom  of  the  individual  in  teaching  and  research,  to- 
gether with  publicity  of  results.  Subdivision  of  the  field  covered  by  the 
department,  organization  and  assignment  of  work  would  be  done  in  staff 
conference.  Publicity  regarding  the  number  of  elective  students,  percent- 
age of  students  passed  and  failed,  average  grades  given,  research  work 
accomplished,  and  so  forth,  would  furnish  opportunity  for  comparison, 
friendly  rivaly,  self-criticism,  and  improvement  of  the  work  of  each  teacher. 

"The  first  step  toward  improvement  of  the  organization  of  state  uni- 
versities would  be  the  organization  of  department  staffs  to  bear  the  re- 
sponsibilities and  to  direct  the  work  of  the  department  through  an  elected 
chairman.  The  second  step  would  be  the  gradual  combination  of  smaller 
into  larger  departments.  The  next  important  step  would  be  the  breaking 
down  of  the  boundaries  between  colleges  on  the  side  of  teaching  and  in- 
vestigation, making  each  student  perfectly  free  to  study  where  and  what 
he  will,  subject  only  to  the  regulation  of  departments  and  to  means 
of  gaining  his  own  ends.  Some  present  schools  and  colleges  would  take 
again  their  proper  places  as  departments,  others  would  be  dissolved. 

"Simplification  in  university  work  and  administration  is  the  crying  need 
next  to  independence  and  responsibility  of  the  members  of  the  faculty. 
The  endless  red  tape  of  business  administration  could  be  largely  done 
away  with  by  the  logical  completion  of  the  budget  system.  The  budget 
having  been  made  by  the  governing  board,  each  department  should  be 
perfectly  free  to  expend  its  own  quota  of  funds  by  vote  of  its  staff  with- 
out supervision  or  approval  of  anybody — and  should  be  held  responsible 
for  the  results  secured  from  year  to  year.  Nobody  can  know  so  well  how 
money  should  be  expended  as  the  staff  who  are  to  use  the  things  pur- 


428  DEPARTMENTAL  ORGANIZATION 

chased,  no  one  knows  so  well  where  to  get  things  or  how  to  get  them 
promptly  when  needed,  none  feels  so  directly  and  keenly  the  effects  of 
misuse  of  money,  none  will  so  carefully  guard  its  resources  as  the  de- 
partment iself.  ...  In  establishing  common  storerooms,  purchasing 
agents,  and  the  like,  the  first  and  chief  step  should  be  to  ask  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  staff  throughout  the  university,  how  can  the  administration  help 
you  in  your  work  through  such  agencies  as  these,  instead  of  thinking  how 
these  agencies  can  remove  from  the  departments  the  ultimate  control  of 
their  work.  Time  and  money  may  be  wasted  at  a  frightful  rate  through 
fear  to  place  responsibility  and  confidence  where  they  belong — a  fear  which 
is  well-founded  on  our  present  system  of  irresponsible  heads  of  depart- 
ments. 

"Simplification  in  the  administration  of  teaching  would  be  favored  by 
the  dissolution  of  the  colleges  and  the  setting  free  of  the  elective  system 
under  a  few  simple  regulations  as  to  the  combination  of  elementary  and 
advanced  courses  and  of  major  and  cognate  work  which  would  be  neces- 
sary for  an  academic  degree,  and  as  to  the  prescribed  curriculum  in  a 
professional  course. 

"What  is  needed  is  fewer  regulations  and  better  teaching;  fewer  snap 
courses,  fewer  substitutions  and  special  dispensations;  less  care  for  the 
poor  student  and  more  food  for  the  good  student;  less  interest)  in  sending 
forth  graduates  and  more  measuring  up  of  students  against  standards  of 
honesty,  industry,  and  self-judgment.  .  .  . 

"Our  universities  are  laboring  under  a  bureaucratic  form  of  govern- 
ment in  which  the  initiative  rests  cheifly  with  the  heads  of  departments, 
in  which  there  is  a  constant  struggle  for  power  among  the  bureau  heads, 
in  which  these  same  heads  are  the  chief  source  of  information  and  ad- 
vice to  the  executive,  in  which  most  of  the  faculty  have  no  voice  in  fram- 
ing policies,  and  in  which — at  its  worst — the  student  is  concerned  only 
to  be  counted  and  the  public  only  to  be  milked.  The  extreme  of  degrada- 
tion is  reached  when  research  is  wholly  neglected  and  teaching  is  regarded 
as  only  the  excuse  for  material  aggrandizement. 

"The  bad  state  of  affairs  which  we  see  every  now  and  then  in  this  or 
that  department  or  college  in  all  our  universities  can  not  be  regarded  as 
the  free  choice  of  any  average  group  of  men.  I  can  not  conceive  of  any 
of  these  things  being  voted  by  members  of  a  staff.  .  .  .  The  remedy  is 
to  recognize  the  primary  interest  of  every  member  of  the  staff  and  to 
establish  representative  government  in  the  university.  On  the  whole  and 
in  the  long  run  the  combined  judgment  of  the  members  of  the  staff  of 


THE  FACULTY'S  PREROGATIVE  429 

any  department  is  sure  to  be  better  than  that  of  any  individual.  Self- 
government  stimulates  individual  initiative  and  calls  forth  ideas  for  the 
common  good.  The  enjoyment  of  freedom  and  responsibility  will  make  of 
our  faculty  morally  strong  and  practically  efficient  men,  and  will  call  into 
the  profession  capable  men,  men  robust  in  intellect  and  imagination,  in- 
stead of  the  weaklings  who  now  barter  their  souls  for  shelter  from  the 
perils  of  a  competitive  business  world. 

"It  may  be  true  in  a  legal  sense  that  the  state  through  the  board  of 
regents  now  hires  the  members  of  the  university  faculty.  But  men  to  do 
university  work  can  not  be  hired.  Those  of  the  faculties  who  now  do 
university  work  do  it  not  because  they  are  paid  living  wages,  but  because 
they  love  the  work.  It  has  been  one  of  the  great  fallacies  of  human  his- 
tory to  suppose  that  workmen  can  be  hired.  When  you  hire  or  enslave 
a  man  you  secure  only  mechanical  service.  The  world's  work  can  not 
be  done  by  hired  muscle  alone,  but  requires  personal  interest,  moral  char- 
acter and  entire  manhood.  .  .  .  Freedom  of  speech  and  complete  self- 
government  are  necessary  to  the  best  interests  of  a  university.  A  whole 
staff  is  together  more  capable  than  any  one  man.  Suppression  of  staff 
members  who  speak  without  authority  of  the  head  is  the  suppression  of 
truth  and  initiative.  It  has  resulted  and  must  result  in  the  selection  of 
weak  men  for  the  faculty  and  in  narrowness,  bigotry,  and  provincialism 
in  the  institution.  Self-government  will  draw  strong  men  into  the  fac- 
ulty, will  stimulate  initiative,  will  make  possible  and  encourage  progres- 
sive administration,  and  will  bring  to  mental  endeavor  on  the  part  of 
both  student  and  teacher  the  freshness  of  the  morning  air,  the  pursuit  of 
a  goal  of  one's  own  choosing,  and  satisfaction  in  the  achievement  of  one's 
ideals." 

I  trust  that  this  extract  from  Professor  Johnston's  article  ma}7 
help  to  convince  all  readers  who  are  in  any  way  responsible  for 
the  government  of  an  institution  of  higher  education,  that  wise 
and  courageous  men  for  the  needed  leadership  would  arise  in 
almost  every  faculty,  if  such  organization  as  is  advocated  in  this 
book  were  instituted.  It  is  the  only  way  out.  Advisers  to  the 
contrary,  who  assert  that  the  men  who  constitute  the  faculties  are 
incompetent  to  take  part  in  either  the  management  of  their  own 
departments  or  the  government  of  the  university,  generally  indict 


430  RESEARCH 

themselves  as  the  selectors  of  the  unfit  persons;  but  their  opinion 
has  been  too  broadly  inferred  from  the  character  of  the  individuals 
who  aie  brought  into  prominence  and  overtempted  by  a  wrong 
organization.  They  do  not  realize  that  the  more  competent  and 
upright  men,  seeing  themselves  powerless  and  their  counsels  dis- 
regarded (if  not  flouted),  have  withdrawn  from  avoidable  activi- 
ties, and  that  their  reticence  means  not  ignorance  but  despair. 
It  is  doubtless  tme  that  the  highest  order  of  manhood  would  have 
shown  more  of  'the  courage  of  convictions'  than  has  been  mani- 
fested; but  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  general  self-sacri- 
fice for  the  principles  involved,  or  to  expect  many  men  to  incur 
voluntarily  risk  of  the  embarrassment  which  an  impecunious 
scholar  must  face  in  a  social  environment  such  as  theirs.  Mag- 
nanimous men  will  be  slow  to  make  a  sweeping  charge  of  coward- 
ice against  the  enlightened  members  of  our  university  faculties  on 
account  of  their  quiescence  under  the  existing  conditions.  The 
obligation  rests  on  university  presidents  to  lead  the  governing 
boards  to  make  the  needed  fundamental  arrangements,  and  to 
encourage  suitable  development  within  the  faculty  jurisdictions. 

A  genuine  graduate  division  comprises  the  specifically  distin- 
guishing activities  of  a  university,  and  research  is  the  culminat- 
ing characteristic  and  aim  of  this  crowning  sphere.  Its  proximity 
and  partial  merging  with  undergraduate  divisions,  wisely  admin- 
istered, detracts  naught  from  its  own  opportunities  and  affords 
beneficent  inspiration  to  the  younger  students.*  All  potential** 
universities  should  immediately  endeavor  to  set  their  houses  in 
order  for  this  vital  and  paramount  part  of  the  work  and  functions 


•See  pp.  280- ;   283-287;  299;  407-408;  etc. 

**The  duty  of  many  institutions  to  cease  from  deceptive  pretensions  by 
making  their  names  and  administrations  fit  their  condtion  and  thus  be- 
come useful  colleges  instead  of  being  counterfeit  universities,  need  not  be 
discussed  again  in  this  connection:  see  pp.  59-61;  184-. 


RESEARCH  431 

of  higher  education,  and  should  henceforth  live  up  to  opportu- 
nities that  have  been  more  or  less  neglected  or  abused.  Among 
such  uniTersities  (with  emphasis  on  "potential")  all  our  state 
universities  are-  to  he  included.  Most  of  them  are  erring  griev- 
ously, but  for  all  of  them  the  nature  of  their  foundation  points 
to  a  possibility  of  full  development.  By  full  development  I  mean 
that  all  work  undertaken  shall  have  the  aims,  and  its  results  have 
the  characteristic  qualities  of  genuine  scholarship, — not  that  every 
possible  line  of  work  should  be  prosecuted.  Graduate  courses  best 
grow  up  in  established  departments.  Graduate  divisions,  espe- 
cially, should  never  add  new  fields  for  the  purpose  of  competitive 
advertising.*  In  the  case  of  universities  in  one  geographical  sec- 
tion, deliberate  co-operation  should  take  the  place  of  reckless 
rivalries.  The  resources  of  one  faculty  might  properly  make  its 
university  a  center  for  the  most  advanced  research  in  mathematics, 
another  for  chemistry  or  classical  philology  or  economics,  as  may 
be  to  the  interests  of  post-graduate  students.  Some  subjects 
(e.  g.,  oriental  languages,  astronomy,  forestry,  architecture,  spe- 
cial branches  of  engineering,  etc.),  might  be  confined  entirely  to 
one  of  a  group  of  universities.  The  saving  of  wasted  money  is 
practically  important  and  is  a  moral  obligation;  but  sound  policies 
in  these  regards  would  bring  still  greater  benefits  and  meet  still 
higher  obligations. 

The  usual  excuses  of  administrators  for  the  dearth  of  productive 
scholarship  in  their  universities  are:  (a)  lack  of  funds,  and  con- 
sequently, (b)  a  faculty  overburdened  by  the  teaching  of  under- 
graduates. It  is  true  in  most  cases  that  the  funds  as  adminis- 
tered are  insufficient,  and  generally  faculties  are  overburdened  by 
multiplied  and  multi-sectionized  undergraduate  courses, — these 
are  proximate  causes.  But  the  originating  effective  causes  are 
so  far  and  so  essentially  different,  that,  if  other  conditions  re- 

*See  page  192. 


432  RESEARCH 

mained  unchanged,  money  might  be  supplied  ad  libitum  and  facul- 
ties doubled  in  numbers,  without  ameliorating  the  character  or 
the  quality  or  the  spirit  of  the  work  performed.  In  cases  where 
wrong  organization  and  maladministration  have  combined  to  de- 
base and  confuse  .ill  activities,  the  present  evil  state  might  be 
aggravated  by  immediate  increase  of  resources. 

Let  us  face  the  whole  truth  steadily:  It  is  true  that  our  uni- 
versities could,  conceivably,  spend  wisely  and  efficiently  on  their 
graduate  divisions  more  than  their  entire  present  incomes;  but 
it  is  also  true  that  they  are  already  spending  more  per  capita  than 
any  other  universities  in  the  world,  while  we  cannot  truly  claim 
more  than  a  third-rate  place  in  productive  scholarship.  Would  it 
not  be  well  to  find  out  the  cause  of  this  condition  before  demand- 
ing more  money  to  spend  in  the  present  ways? 

In  an  address  before  the  Outlook  Club  of  the  University  of 
Iowa  (February,  1914),  on  "The  Predicament  of  Scholarship  in 
America  and  One  Solution,"  Dr.  F.  C.  Brown,  despairing  of  our 
universities,  advocates  separate  research  institutions,  especially  for 
his  own  science  of  ph}rsics: 

"Only  the  uninformed  are  in  the  habit  of  designating  the  mere  diffu- 
sion of  knowledge  as  scholarship.  .  .  .  Any  nation  that  believes  only 
in  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  is  on  the  road  to  decay.  ...  I  believe 
for  any  nation  that  has  any  hope  of  perpetual  existence  that  the  scholars 
are  the  most  essential  of  any  class  of  society.  .  .  .  And  what  is  the 
predicament  of  scholarship  in  America?  Simply  this:  the  institutions 
that  have  attempted  to  foster  scholarship  have  not  lived  up  to  their  op- 
portunities. .  .  .  True  enough,  our  universities  have  sufficient  resources 
to  properly  foster  the  work  of  a  physical  institute,  and  there  is  an  abund- 
ant supply  of  men  forthcoming.  .  .  .  But  the  difficulty  with  our  uni- 
versities is  one  that  arises  from  mixed  ideals,  particularly  in  our  state 
universities.  ...  A  university  wants  scholars,  but  it  wants  a  large 
number  of  students  first.  It  wants  more  students  in  order  to  convince 
the  people  of  its  greatness,  so  that  it  may  get  more  money,  so  that  it 
may  establish  more  departments,  and  so  get  more  students,  and  so  on. 


RESEARCH  433 

.  .  .  Energy  and  resources  that  might  be  directed  toward  scholarship 
are  scattered  in  every  direction.  .  .  .  The  ideal  in  practice  is  not  how 
great  scholarship,  but  how  thin  can  it  be  spread.  In  other  words,  there 
is  in  our  scholarship  a  strong  tendency  toward  democracy  gone  mad. 

.  .  .  If  we  will  admit  that  our  administrative  officers  generally  have 
no  vision  of  the  value  of  scholarship  to  the  future  of  society,  we  can  pro- 
ceed with  our  argument.  .  .  . 

"What  has  been  the  result  of  the  material  growth  of  our  universities 
on  the  development  of  physical  science  in  this  country?  We  have  lab- 
oratories of  marble  and  cases  filled  with  apparatus,  and  hordes  of  stu- 
dents, and  a  wonderful  machine-like  system  to  care  for  these  students. 
But  the  efforts  and  resources  adapted  to  scholarly  purposes  are  not  at 
all  in  proportion  to  merit.  .  .  .  The  demand  is  for  men  who  will 
take  care  of  these  hordes  of  students,  men  who  will  lead  these  students 
by  the  hand  and  feed  them  with  a  spoon.  .  .  .  It  is  no  doubt  true 
that  in  some  instances  scholarship  is  not  developed  in  physics  because  the 
members  of  the  department  staff  are  beyond  hope  of  becoming  scholars 
and  they  either  have  no  knowledge  of  what  tends  to  develop  scholarship 
or  are  afraid  that  some  individual  might  develop  who  would  be  a  greater 
man  than  those  on  the  ground  floor.  But  this  latter  is  pure  hypothesis. 
What  is  needed  is  a  higher  light  on  American  soil.  .  .  .  Productive 
scholarship  is  the  flower  of  our  educational  work  and  that  individual 
who  shows  tendencies  to  bloom  ahould  be  allowed  the  every  ounce  of  his 
energy  to  apply  in  this  direction." 

Dr.  Brown  has  stated  fairly  enough  "the  predicament  of  scholar- 
ship" under  the  tendencies  which  we  are  striving  to  check  and 
change,  but  in  my  judgment  separate  research  institutions  would 
not  be  a  "solution."  Suitably  endowed  institutions  for  research 
have  their  proper  sphere  (especially  for  large  problems  extending 
beyond  individual  lifetime)  and  are  to  be  highly  appreciated,  but 
they  could  never  take  the  place  or  fulfill  the  function  of  pro- 
ductive scholarship  in  universities.  The  principle  applied  to  the 
science  of  medicine  by  Dr.  Victor  C.  Vaughan  in  his  recent  presi- 
dential address  to  the  American  Medical  Association  applies  to 
all  sciences  and  to  scholarship  in  general : 

"I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  idea  that  medical  research  should  be 
largely  relegated  to  special  non-teaching  institutions.  These  have  their 


434  RESEARCH 

function  and  we  rejoice  in  their  foundation  and  support,  but  the  man 
who  is  devoid  of  the  spirit  of  scientific  investigation  has  no  place  in 
medicine  as  student,  practitioner,  or  teacher,  and  the  most  elaborate  medi- 
cal training  without  opportunity  for  scientific  observation  is  barren.  Be- 
sides, opportunity  for  medical  discovery  should  be  widely  distributed. 
.  .  .  The  workers  must  be  many,  all  must  be  free  to  pursue  knowledge 
in  their  own  way,  and  all  must  be  compelled  to  prove  their  claims.  .  .  . 
"Each  good  medical  school  is  doing  more  or  less  of  research  which  is 
not  confined  to  laboratory  investigators,  but  is  fast  finding  its  way  into 
the  hospitals.  Indeed,  some  of  our  clinical  men  are  now  making  most 
valuable  contributions.  Every  medical  man  should  have  much  of  the  spirit 
of  research." 

There  should  be  no  need  to  repeat  at  this  point  the  arguments 
that  have  been  presented  in  different  connections*  indicating  the 
advantages  of  a  Avide  and  intimate  union  of  investigation  and 
teaching.  The  advantages  accrue  to  all  interests.  Certainly  sci- 
ence has  not  suffered  in  Germany  from  the  fact  that  her  leading 
scholars  have  been  the  actual  daily  teachers  of  her  university  stu- 
donts;  and  what  it  means  for  a  people  to  have  its  strongest  youth 
come  into  intellectual  contact,  fact  to  face,  with  its  leading  think- 
ers, needs  no  argument.  Those  most  competent  to  speak  from 
experience  testify  that  the  scholars  find  their  vigor  prolonged  and 
their  total  productiveness  not  diminished  by  their  teaching. 
Surely  it  fits  the  nature  of  things  that  those  who  are  advancing 
knowledge  should  instruct  the  young  aspirants  to  scholarship. 
Dr.  Brown  goes  too  far,  in  my  judgment,  when  he  says  that  every 
one  capable  of  research  should  apply  "every  ounce  of  his  energy 
in  this  direction."'  There  is  no  direction  in  which  any  man 
should  permanently  apply  every  ounce  of  his  energy.  Such  a 
course  defeats  its  purpose.  American  scholars,  however,  could 
hardly  be  censured  were  they  to  revolt  against  the  spirit  in  which 
they  have  been  abused  and  wasted  in  manv  of  our  universities; 


'See  pp.  280- ;   283-287;   299;   301-303;  etc. 


PECUNIARY   RESOURCES  435 

even  the  indictment,  made  by  some  of  them,  that  the  American 
university  is  "a  parasite  on  the  scholarly  impulse  instead  of  a 
stimulus  to  it"*  is  not  without  its  lamentable  foundations. 

Limitations  of  pecuniary  resources  never  justify  abandoning  the 
essential  sDirit  of  university  work  and  life;  they  should  merely 
limit  the  number  of  the  special  fields  cultivated.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary that  all  fields  be  cultivated  by  every  university;  but  it  is 
essential  that  the  work  in  every  field  that  is  entered  be  honestly 
and  worthily  performed.  Maladministration  (springing  mainly 
from  malorganization)  is  responsible  for  the  present  evil  pre- 
dicament— especially  the  plight  into  which  the  majority  of  state 
universities  have  fallen.  The  spectacle  is  before  us  in  typical 
cases  of  such  a  multiplication  and  needless  sectionizing  of  courses 
that,  with  an  average  of  less  than  a  dozen  students  to  each  mem- 
ber of  the  teaching  staff,**  the  schedules  cause  the  teachers  to  be 
"overwhelmed  with  undergraduate  instruction"  and  allow  no  time 
for  proper  graduate  courses  or  scholarly  work.  Yet  the  admin- 
istrative officers  who  have  framed  or  compelled  the  making  of  such 
schedules,  and  whose  policies  have  replenished  the  faculties  with 
cheap  and  ill  qualified  members,  see  no  fault  in  themselves  and 
are  crying  aloud  that  all  that  is  needed  is  more  money.  It  is  not 
presumptuous  to  say  that  I  could  submit  to  any  large  university 
suffering  from  the  conditions  referred  to,  a  budget  corresponding 
with  proposed  changes  in  the  administration  of  the  curriculum, 
which,  if  adopted,  would  forthwith  release  large  sums  for  the 
graduate  division  and  research,  and  would  relieve  the  faculty  of 
all  overwhelming  assignments.  If,  simultaneously,  sound  policies 
for  recruiting  the  faculty  with  competent  men  as  rapidly  as  jus- 


*Page   117. 

**See  page  6  of  "A  Study  of  the  Financial  Basis  of  the  State  Universi- 
ties and  Agricultural  Colleges  in  Fourteen  States,"  by  Arthur  Lefevre, 
issued  (1912)  by  the  Organization  for  the  Enlargement  by  the  State  of 
Texas  of  its  Institutions  of  Higher  Education,  Austin,  Texas. 


436  PECUNIARY   RESOURCES 

tice  and  good  faith  permitted,  were  adopted,  the  whole  spirit  and 
quality  of  the  institution's  work  would  soon  render  an  infinitely 
enhanced  service  to  the  commonwealth  and  to  all  the  proper  ob- 
jects of  a  university.  The  principles  and  many  particulars  for 
such  amendments  are  spread  throughout  this  book. 

(1)  Aside  from  need  for  money,  the  large  (and  nearly  always 
concealed)  expenditures  for  advertising  should  be  reduced  as  indi- 
cated in  Chapter  III.  This  alone  in  some  cases  might  supply  al- 
most as  much  money  as  the  graduate  division  would  know  how  to 
spend  immediately.  (2)  Aside  from  the  need  of  money,  courses 
that  have  been  instituted  only  for  advertising  purposes  should  gen- 
erally be  dropped.  Some  such  courses,  as  conducted,  have  been 
intrinsically  as  fraudulent  as  paper  soles  for  shoes  or  any  other 
trick  of  commercial  knavery.  Sometimes  nominally  proper  courses 
are  no  better;  hut  such  require  strengthening,  not  abolishment. 
(3)  Some  superfluous  courses  have  usually  crept  into  the  sched- 
ules; and  where  there  is  need  of  funds  for  essential  work,  a  con- 
siderable number  of  courses  not  vicious  in  themselves  should  be 
suspended.*  After  some  experience  under  more  wholesome  con- 
ditions, expansions  would  he  made  again  more  wisely  with  the 
increased  resources  that  would  come  as  the  reward  of  better 
service.  Restoration  of  confidence  and  appreciation  might  come 
slowly — for  the  people  are  becoming  sorely  perplexed,  but  it  would 
come  and  ample  funds  with  it.  (4)  The  number  of  sections  in 
the  undergraduate  courses  which  are  not  laboratory  courses  could 
be  greatly  reduced  without  loss  and  with  many  incidental  benefits. 
(5)  All  "scholarships"  paid  from  general  revenue  should  be 
abolished.  It  is  certain  that  evil  is  mixed  with  the  good  claimed 
for  these  money  gifts;  but  1  believe  the  evil  inheres  almost  en- 
tirely in  the  scholarships  paid  by  the  institution,  as  distinguished 
from  those  founded  by  specific  donation  or  bequest.  A  student 

•See  page  46. 


PECUNIARY    RESOURCES  437 

loan  fund  (after  the  original  investment)  would  be  self-sustain- 
ing, far  more  helpful,  free  from  the  inequities  incident  to  the 
awarding  of  paid  scholarships,  and  clear  from  the  moral  objec- 
tions to  giving  and  to  receiving  the  gifts  out  of  public  funds.* 
The  scholarships  commonly  offered  to  the  honor  graduates  of  all 
affiliated  high,  schools  involving  merely  the  remittance  of  some 
small  matriculation  fee,  are  not  here  referred  to;  they  are  legiti- 
mate and  may  be  helpful  to  the  high  schools,  of  some  advantage 
to  the  university,  and  not  injurious  to  the  recipients.  Nor  is 
there  objection  to  unsolicited  private  endowments  for  special  schol- 
arships; in  particular,  memorial  scholarships  and  fellowships  seem 
to  project  their  gracious  and  benign  causes  into  good  effects.  But 
the  appropriations  for  paid  scholarships  by  state  universities** 
which  at  the  same  time  complain  that  their  resources  are  not 
sufficient  for  the  proper  performance  of  their  work,  constitute  one 
of  countless  exposures  of  the  belief  nursed  by  their  administrators 
that  the  public  regards  only  the  number  of  students  and  will  pay 
for  nothing  else.  The  day  for  a  schocking  awakening  for  the  op- 
portunists who  have  administered  universities  under  this  belief 
appears  to  me  to  be  approaching. 

Space  is  lacking  for  more  details;  various  other  economies  have 
been  suggested  to  an  attentive  reader.  The  money  that  could  be 
saved  in  the  ways  mentioned  in  the  preceding  paragraph  would 
suffice  to  relieve  the  faculty  from  excessive  routine  teaching,  make 
some  addition  to  all  salaries  that  ought  to  be  raised,  and  add 
equipment  for  research — not  enough,  but  more  than  the  dejected 
departments  have  ever  yet  dared  to  hope  for.  This  would  do 

*An  extract  from  a  report  by  the  Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of 
Teaching  given  in  a  previous  chapter  (see  especially  page  190)  indi- 
cates the  extent  of  this  abuse  and  reveals  something  of  its  inner  motives 
and  effects. 

**Or  the  "free"  scholarships  in  non-state  institutions  dependent  upon 
charges  for  tuition.  Cf.  p.  190. 


438  BENEFICIAL   RETRENCHMENTS 

for  a  beginning.  Substantial  increase  of  income  would  follow 
improved  results.  In  some  cases  it  would  be  better  to  have  re- 
sources increased  gradually,  and  the  needed  expenditures  for 
expanding  work  established  in  the  light  of  experience  with  cor- 
rected organization  and  more  skillful  administration. 

The  beneficial  retrenchments  I  have  advised  will  commend 
themselves  to  every  reader  who  acknowledges  the  fundamental 
principles  to  which  this  book  appeals,* — with  one  exception.  All 
but  one  are  based  on  universal  principles;  the  exception  may  be 
complicated  with  technical  questions  of  fact.  Is  it  true,  that: 
"The  number  of  sections  in  the  undergraduate  courses  which  are 
not  laboratory  courses  could  be  greatly  reduced  without  loss  and 
with  many  incidental  benefits"?  The  advertisers  make  a  'catchy' 
announcement  when  they  proclaim  that  their  courses  have  been 
sectionized  so  as  to  allow  only  some  small  number  in  each  section 
and  that  every  student  is  to  receive  individual  instruction  in  all 
of  his  studies.  What  does  this  really  mean?  It  means  that  the 
majority  of  the  young  students  meet  only  cheap  instructors.  It 
means  in  the  case  of  certain  courses,  which  necessarily  have  a 
vital  formative  importance  for  all  regular  matriculants,  down- 
leveling  mechanized  teaching — in  order  to  keep  the  many  sections 
of  the  same  course  in  lockstep  uniformity.  One  who  would  judge 
the  question  on  its  real  merits  must,  also,  take  into  account  that 
the  majority  of  young  instructors  have  been  turned  out  under 
the  "prizes  for  all"  theory  and  practice,**  and  that  their  degrees 
may  possibly  be  little  more  than  certificates  of  attendance.  Of 
course,  a  cheap  instructor  may  be  a  vastly  superior  man  to  some 
full  professor,  but  in  a  general  view  only  general  facts  are  to  be 
considered.  Freshmen  coming  to  some  state  universities  from 
good  high  schools  too  often  find  little  or  no  change  in  subject- 


*See    page    83. 
**See  pp.  341- ;   420. 


BENEFICIAL   RETRENCHMENTS  439 

matter  or  spirit  of  instruction,  nor  in  the  force  and  scholarship 
of  teachers;  while  those  who  come  from  the  best  schools  are  often 
subjected  to  more  childish  treatment  and  distinctly  less  forceful 
instructors  than  during  the  latter  years  of  their  school  life.  I 
have  heard  many  fathers  express  indignant  disappointment  be- 
cause their  sons  were  meeting  none  of  the  strong  men  in  the 
faculty,  but  had  gone  from  manly  inspiring  teachers  in  a  prepara- 
tory school  to  be  fed  with  a  spoon  in  a  university.  The  vaunted 
individual  attention  practically  tends  to  reduce  to  spoon-feeding 
and  scolding. 

Under  existing  conditions  much  more  than  money  for  the  grad- 
uate division  would  be  gained  by  decreasing  the  number  of  sec- 
tions in  undergraduate  courses.  The  tendency  to  coddle  every- 
body to  a  "pass/"  would  be  resisted  as  stronger  and  officially  more 
independent  men,  teaching  large  sections,  superseded  many  of  the 
precariously  placed  and  sometimes  arbitrarily  supervised  instruc- 
tors with  their  little  sections.  Some  pedagogical  colleagues  may 
cry  aloud  in  protest  against  all  this,  but,  for  the  time  being,  the 
less  they  are  heeded  on  questions  of  general  policy  the  better. 
There  are  noble  exceptions  (may  their  tribe  increase),  but  few 
of  them  have  yet  found  themselves  or  their  subject.  Their  de- 
mands have  misled  many  faculties  into  injurious  concessions. 

An  untrammeled  faculty  of  genuine  scholars  will  do  good  teach- 
ing regardless  of  any  particular  system — "preceptorial,"  small  sec- 
tions, large  sections,  or  any  other  not  intrinsicly  absurd.  The 
important  practical  matter  for  the  time  being  is  to  do  away  with 
arrangements  that  are  leveling  everything  to  the  poorest  capacities, 
with  the  result  that  the  weakest  get  nothing  worth  mentioning 
and  young  men  of  superior  power  are  spoiled  or  wasted.  Proper 
courses  of  instruction  and  proper  "crediting"  will  remain  practi- 
cally impossible  as  long  as  the  childish  attitudes  about  "failing" 
are  maintained.  The  degree  which  it  is  a  disgrace,  or  a  matter 


440  PREPARATION  FOR  GRADUATE  WORK 

of  discipline,  not  to  take  on  schedule  time,  cannot  be  a  distinc- 
tion; it  must  reduce  approximately  to  a  certificate  of  tolerated 
attendance,  and  the  standard  of  toleration  must  tend  to  sink  in- 
definitely. 

The  incessant  complaint  by  universities  about  poor  preparation 
for  college  entrance  is  abstractly  just;  but  their  own  preparation 
for  their  graduate  divisions  is  much  more  at  fault  and  a  much 
more  seri-ous  matter.  Also,  the  best  way  to  amend  the  former  is 
to  correct  the  latter,  because  few  students  would  continue  in  un- 
desirable attendance  on  instruction  really  beyond  their  grasp,  and 
the  secondary  schools  would  quickly  strive  to  meet  intrinsic  re- 
quirements for  successful  attendance — without,  which  no  adventi- 
tious requirements  for  entrance  can  be  effective1.*  If  a  university 
course  is  conducted  on  the  theory  that  evi-ry  obedient  student 
rightly  prepared  for  entrance  ought  to  win  credit  for  it  in  his 
first  attempt,  the  practical  consequence  is  the  undergraduate  de- 
gree for  all  who  will  attend  diligently:  and,  since  no  institution 
can  discount  its  own  solemn  titles,  the  graduate  division  and  the 
Ph.  D.  degree  are  dragged  down  to  abortive  work  and  meaning- 
less distinction. 

Here  may  be  seen  the  real  nature  and  cause  of  the  opinion,  now 
spreading  among  American  scientists,  that  research  needs  to  be 
divorced  from  teaching.  It  is  the  application  of  the  "prizes  for 
all"  theory  to  the  baccalaureate  degree  that  makes  subsequent 
teaching  bootless  for  the  taught,  and  so  onerous  for  the  teacher 


•President  R.  J.  Aley  of  the  University  of  Maine  testified  in  1911: 
"Many  students  entered  the  University  conditioned  because  of  their  fail- 
ure to  offer  enough  language,  science,  mathematics,  or  history.  One  of 
the  singular  things  noted  in  studying  the  college  career  of  these  students 
is  that  there  is  no  appreciable  difference  in  college  work  between  the  stu- 
dents who  enter  regularly  and  those  who  enter  conditioned.  If  there  is 
any  difference,  it  is  in  favor  of  the  conditioned  student,  because,  in  ad- 
dition to  his  regular  work,  he  must  make  up  the  conditions  imposed  upon 
him  at  entrance." 


SCHOLARSHIP  441 

that  time  and  spirit  for  genuine  research  are  lacking.  The  ex- 
hausting labor  of  coaching  mediocre  and  ill-prepared  minds  to 
make  some  sort  of  showing  in  so-called  original  research  for  the 
Ph.  D.  degree,  wastes  the  time  of  men  capable  of  advanced  re- 
search and  of  inspiring  to  full  development  fit  aspirants  to  scholar- 
ship; and  this  enforcement  of  low  standards  saps  the  integrity  of 
all  who  participate  in  it,  because  thereby  science  and  scholarship 
are  betrayed  in  a  house  of  false  friends.  No  need  for  divorcing 
teaching  and  research  would  be  felt,  if  university  administration 
ceased  from  reckless  bidding  for  numbers,  particularly  in  grad- 
uate divisions,  and  from  pushing  misguided  young  men  into  under- 
takings for  which  they  are  not  properly  prepared,  or  are,  perhaps, 
congenitally  incompetent.  A  university  should  indeed  be  "dem- 
ocratic" in  the  sense  that  from  its  well-springs  drink  alike,  in 
perfect  equality  of  manhood,  rich  and  poor,  high-born  and  lowly; 
but  its  highest-placed  fountains,  if  reached  at  all,  are  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  necessary  ascent  accessible  only  by  an  aristocracy 
of  nature  and  discipline.  To  attain  scholarship  one  need  not  be 
genius-crowned,  but  he  must  be  power-shod  by  innate  endowment 
and  adequate  discipline.  There  are  no  more  deadly  foes  of  edu- 
cation and  of  science — and  therefore  of  the  whole  body  politic — 
than  those  who  prate  about  university  degrees  "for  every  American 
boy  and  girl."  It  is  of  vital  importance  for  the  success  of  any 
democratic  regime  that  the?e  truths  be  recognized.  A  democratic 
society  would  be  doomed  to  an  on-coming  downfall  if  it  were  to 
become  blind  to  its  need  for  true  universities  and  regarded  them 
as  luxuries  for  a  pampered  few.  Only  a  few  can  be  productive 
scholars,  as  only  a  few  can  be  creative  musicians;  but  the  debt 
of  everybody  to  both  is  plain  to  all  except  hopelessly  envious  souls. 
How  much  does  society  owe  to  those  who  have  helped  to  enfran- 
chise thought  and  dispel  superstition  ?  Does  the  passenger  on  the 
"ocean  greyhound"  realize  his  indebtedness  to  the  men  of  science 


442  SCHOLARSHIP 

through  whose  secluded  work  the  design  of  the  great  machine  be- 
came possible,  and  to  the  astronomers  whose  Xautical  Almanac  en- 
ables it  to  steer  across  trackless  seas?  What  were  the  "toys  of  the 
laboratory"  worth,  which  the  inventors  of  electrical  apparatus, 
like  Edison,  have  applied  to  such  universal  services?  (England 
paid  Farady  less  than  $2500  a  year.)  Were  the  fees  of  a  privat 
docent  too  much  to  pay  for  knowledge  of  Hertzian  vibrations,  and 
our  wireless  stations?  Who  enjoys  the  millions  by  which  agri- 
culture profits  ever}'  year  from  the  contributions  of  even  one  such 
chemist  as  Liebig?  Had  Pasteur  never  been,  how  much  would 
the  people  pay  to  stop  the  pestilences  he  has  prevented?  And  so 
with  all  the  scholars  who  carry  on  and  on  the  Empire  of  Reason. 
They  care  not  that  their  names  are  seldom  known  beyond  the 
circle  of  fellowworkers,*  but  they  do  demand  that  their  workshop 
be  not  treated  from  within  as  if  it  were  a  paradise  for  fools,  nor 
censored  from  without  as  if  seekers  after  truth  should  report  of 
their  findings  only  things  harmonious  with  popular  convictions. 
The  following  extracts  from  a  weighty  report  adopted  by  the 
Graduate  School  of  Cornell  University  in  1910,  strongly  corrob- 
orate the  counsel  submitted  in  this  section.  No  mere  competent 
authority  could  be  cited.  (Most  of  the  italics  are  mine.) 

"It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  an  increase  in  the  number  of  under- 
graduates brings  with  it  an  additional  burden  of  administrative  work, 
and  that  this  burden,  together  with  the  responsibility  of  planning  the 
work  of  instruction  so  as  to  handle  such  large  numbers,  must  fall  upon 
the  permanent  members  of  the  staff.  Unless  the  permanent  staff  is  in- 
<yreased  in  the  same  ratio  as  the  whole  teaching  staff,  the  time  of  the  mem- 
ters  of  our  Faculty  will  be  increasingly  occupied  by  administrative 
routinee,  and  advanced  work  and  research  must  necessarily  suffer." 

"It  is  a  relatively  simple  matter  for  a  teacher  to  drop  his  advanced  work 


'Probably  none  but  biologists  know  the  names  of  the  men  for  whom 
the  world  had  to  wait  before  the  Panama  Canal  could  be  constructed  with- 
out the  prohibitive  cost  of  life  and  treasure  which  had  caused  it  to  be 
abandoned. 


ADVANCED   INSTRUCTION  443 

in  order  to  give  instruction  to  elementary  classes.  But  it  is  a  different 
thing  for  a  man  whose  time  has  been  occupied  by  the  routine  of  admin- 
istration and  elementary  work  to  change  suddenly  to  graduate  instruction 
and  the  direction  of  research.  Again,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  graduate 
student,  the  attractiveness  of  a  university  is  determined  either  by  the  ex- 
cellence of  its  facilities  for  experimental  work,  or  by  the  standing  of  the 
members  of  its  faculty  as  investigators  and  progressive  scholars.  Unless 
our  Faculty  contains  men  eminent  in  their  fields  of  knowledge  and  pre- 
pared to  give  graduate  students  the  special  training  and  the  inspiration 
that  they  seek,  and  unless  the  University  possesses  the  material  equip- 
ment that  is  required,  graduate  students  will  not  come  to  us.  Provision 
for  graduate  students  must  be  made  years  in  advance,  and  not  after  the 
need  of  it  has  been  shown  by  the  returns  from  the  Registrar's  office." 

"One  of  the  most  effective  means  of  strengthening  the  Graduate  School, 
and  at  the  same  time  of  maintaining  a  high  standard  of  undergraduate 
teaching,  is  for  the  members  of  this  Faculty  to  use  their  influence,  both 
individually  and  as  a  body,  to  encourage  scholarly  work  among  all  mem- 
bers of  the  instructing  staff.  Let  it  be  understood  that  each  member  of 
our  staff  is  expected  to  contribute  in  some  way  to  the  advancement  of 
knowledge,  and  not  merely  to  teach  what  he  has  received  from  others.  If 
there  are  any  who  are  overburdened  with  routine  teaching,  the  load  should 
be  lightened  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  research  possible." 

"It  seems  clear,  therefore,  that  if  the  University  is  to  achieve  its  high- 
est purpose  it  must  first  of  all  demand  of  all  its  teachers  those  charac- 
teristics which  are  recognized  as  essential  to  membership  in  this  Faculty; 
and  having  done  so,  it  should  assist  in  maintaining  their  activity  and 
enthusiasm  by  encouraging  all  teachers,  young  and  old,  to  contribute  to 
progress  in  their  fields  of  knowledge  by  scholarly  work  and  investigation. 
Those  who  are  sufficiently  mature  should  further  be  given  the  opportun- 
ity of  taking  part  in  the  direction  of  graduate  work." 

"It  is  important  for  the  interests  of  the  Graduate  School  and  of  the 
University  as  a  whole  that  the  work  of  teaching  be  so  distributed  that 
all  members  of  the  instructing  staff  may  have  a  reasonable  amount  of 
time  for  scholarly  work  and  research.  And  it  is  recommended  that  all 
members  of  this  Faculty  use  their  influence,  both  collectively  and  indi- 
vidually, to  encourage  such  work  by  all  members  of  the  teaching  staff." 

"So  far  as  practicable  each  member  of  the  staff  should  be  given,  the  op- 
portunity of  taking  part  in  advanced  instruction  as  icell  as  in  elementary 
teaching." 


444  EXTENSION    DIVISION 

"Recommendation  for  appointment  and  promotion  should  be  contingent 
upon  the  possession  of  ability  and  activity  in  scholarly  work  and  investi- 
gation, and  not  merely  upon  success  in  teaching." 

"May  it  not  be  that  we  can  do  more  good  for  the  cause  of  education  by 
directing  our  efforts  toward  making  Cornell  the  best  university  in  the 
country,  rather  than  the  lergest?" 

Extension  Division. 

Space  permits  only  very  brief  comment  upon  the  latest  and  most 
noised  abroad  sphere  of  university  activities — the  Extension  Divi- 
sion. Abstractly  nothing  but  good  is  to  be  said  of  the  idea.  Per- 
sonally, I  feel  a  greater  intellectual  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  first 
formal  university-extension  lecturer  in  America,  than  to  any  other 
teacher.  It  was  my  privilege  to  hear  many  lectures  and  various 
courses  of  lectures  delivered  in  Johns  Hopkins  University  and  the 
Peabody  Institute  of  Baltimore  by  Richard  G.  Moulton,  then  Cam- 
bridge University  Extension  Lecturer  in  Literature.  It  was  dur- 
ing several  of  the  years  1878-1882,  while  I  was  attending  the 
Baltimore  City  College  where  I  was  instructed  by  many  able 
scholars,  two  or  three  of  whom  were  as  strong  and  inspiring  as 
any  university  professors  I  have  met  either  as  student  or  col- 
league in  later  years;  but  I  learned  more  and  more  vitally  and 
more  lastingly  from  Professor  Moulton's  lectures  on  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  English  literature  than  from  any  other  one  source 
either  in  or  out  of  a  university.  The  great  English  university 
extended  to  America  one  of  her  professors,  and  she  gave  of  her 
best.  But  neither  I  nor  any  of  my  young  comrades  who  seized 
the  opportunity  ever  thought  of  such  a  thing  as  "credit"  in  our 
college  for  those  extra  courses.* 

Extension  lectures  by  university  professors  may  be  of  great 
service  to  any  community — and  will  be,  if  no  "credits"  are  offered 
for  them.  It  must  be  understood  that  such  lectures  are  not  a  sub- 


•Cf.  pp.   228;   344;    349-350;   404. 


EXTENSION   DIVISION  445 

stitute  for  regular  courses  in  connection  with  university  libraries 
and  laboratories  and  associations. 

Correspondence  courses  may  render  valuable  and  needed  service 
if  they  are  not  conceived  as  an  equivalent  substitute  for  work  in 
college.  Under  some  conditions  crediting  for  degrees  may  be  jus- 
tifiable, but  that  way  danger  lies  and  it  has  led  to  many  abuses. 

President  Kane  has  said : 

"The  chief  danger  in  the  correspondence  school  is  the  impression  given 
out  that  it  may  be  made  to  serve  as  a  substitute  for  a  real  school.  It 
is  the  same  with  the  Chautauquas  with  their  reading  circle  courses.  They 
may  do  considerable  good,  if  we  estimate  them  at  what  they  really  are, 
and  are  harmful  in  case  they  are  mistaken  for  regular  courses.  In  this 
same  class  \ve  might  speak  of  the  'short  courses'  given  in  universities 
or  regular  schools.  .  .  .  We  have  to  take  unusual  care  to  make  it 
understood  what  the  course  is,  and  especially  what  it  is  not." 

With  vigilant  restraint  against  abuses,  correspondence  courses 
may  develop  wholesomely,  provided  no  course  is  offered  until  it 
can  be  given  worthily,  and  that  resources  for  each  extension  are 
available  without  sapping  the  strength  of  other  work.  President 
Van  Hise  gave  a  wise  warning  some  years  ago  out  of  his  experi- 
ence in  Wisconsin: 

"By  extension  courses,  lectures,  popular  scientific  literature,  etc.,  the 
popular  interest  and  sympathy  may  be  enlisted.  But  how  far  elementary 
and  secondary  education  shall  be  dominated  by  technical,  industrial,  and 
agricultural  tendencies  is  of  concern  to  the  universities,  as  well  as  the 
danger  that  the  highest  ideals  of  the  universities  themselves  may  be  lost 
in  the  attempt  to  follow  popular  demand.  The  universities  should  be  with 
the  people  but  at  the  head." 

Extension  Divisions  are  peculiarly  liable  to  exploitation  by  the 
do-everything-reach-everybody  ecstacy — or  demagogy,  as  the  case 
may  be.  The  solemn  silliness  of  the  assertions  and  demands 
made  by  some  zealots  in  and  without  the  universities,*  can  hardly 


*When   such   extreme  enthusiasts   are  members   of  a   university  faculty 
and   their   outcries   do   not  move   it,  they  are   disposed   to   agitate   in  the 


446  ATHLETICS 

be  imagined  by  persons  not  familiar  with  the  discussions.  The 
general  attitude  is  illustrated  by  the  impassioned  assertion — if  cor- 
rectly reported  in  reliable  journals — of  a  man  experienced  in  uni- 
versity positions,  and  of  high  standing  in  Washington  (officially 
and  as  an  expert),  that  the  National  University  which  he  was 
advocating  "should  reach  ninety  per  cent  of  the  people  within 
the  time  of  this  generation."  A  school  girl  might  be  chided  for 
such  intemperate  thought  and  speech.  And  aside  from  the  exag- 
geration,* any  such  demand  upon  or  conception  of  a  university 
is  positively  vicious. 

Athletics. 

It  appears  almost  absurd  that  college  athletics  should  have 
become  a  Problem.  University  administration,  it  would  seem, 
need  be  concerned  with  nothing  more  than  providing  for  the  gen- 


legislatures — being  as  ignorant  of  ethical  proprieties  as  of  other  profes- 
sional obligations.  They  are  commonly  ready  to  write  a  law  off-hand  on 
almost  any  subject.  Some  of  them  will  write  a  bill  for  the  legislative 
committee  of  a  woman's  club  while  its  members  wait  to  carry  the  docu- 
ment away  with  them.  It  has  been  necessary  in  probably  more  than  one 
instance  to  call  a  special  session  of  a  legislature  quickly  to  repeal  a  law 
drafted  by  alleged  university  experts.  Many  other  laws  so  drafted  re- 
main dead  letters  on  account  of  absurd  or  impossible  provisions :  for  in- 
stance, in  one  such  it  is  ordained  under  fierce  penalties  that  every  public 
school  house  costing  four  hundred  dollars  or  over  shall  be  equipped  with 
automatic  systems  of  temperature-control  and  ventilation! 

*A11  the  churches  of  every  denomination  combined  do  not  reach  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  people. 

It  cannot  be  pled  that  "reach"  might  have  been  used  in  the  nugatory 
sense  in  which  every  event  may  be  metaphysically  said  to  affect  all  things 
presently  existing  and  all  future  being;  for  that  attenuated  meaning  of 
"reach"  leaves  no  meaning  at  all  in  "ninety  per  cent." — it  would  be  the 
100  per  cent  of  this  people  plus  infinitely  more.  It  may  be  said  that 
a  poet's  thought,  a  scientist's  discovery,  or  a  university  or  a  mother 
who  contributes  to  the  nurture  of  a  strong  good  man,  benefits  the  whole 
world  and  all  that  is  within  it;  but  the  truth  of  that  ultimate  concept 
nowise  relieves  the  folly  of  saying  that  chautauqua  platforms  for  a  woman 
or  extension  devices  of  a  university  would  reach  ninety  per  cent  of  the 
people. 


ATHLETICS  447 

eral  body  of  students  outdoor  space  for  games,  and  rooms  and 
equipment  and  competent  directors  for  beneficial  gymnastics. 
Games  between  home  teams  would  be  the  ordinary  sport,  match 
games  with  the  best  teams  of  neighboring  colleges  would  be  played 
on  holidays  as  convenient,  and,  it  might  be  supposed,  occasionally 
a  journey  to  meet  some  distant  challenge  would  be  made.  And 
such  would  have  been  the  case  if  the  matter  had  been  left  in  its 
natural  sphere.  But  advertising  geniuses  among  college  admin- 
istrators seized  upon  athletics;  an  abnormal  bent  in  the  college 
spirit  of  student  bodies  was  induced  and  fostered  into  a  tradition; 
and  lo !  the  Problem  of  College  Athletics.  Traditions  die  slowly ; 
but  the  troubles  with  athletics  would  subside  if  administrative 
officials  were  cured  of  the  itch  for  numbers.  Until  that  good  day 
comes,  the  extravagances  of  college  athletics  should  be  endured 
philosophically  as  one  of  the  minor  concomitants  of  a  radical 
disorder. 

The  following  comment  by  Professor  C.  H.  Grandgent  expresses 
only  a  partial  view,  but  it  suggests  some  profitable  reflections : 

"A  very  serious  college  paper  publishes  an  article  by  an  evidently  earn- 
est young  man  who  maintains  that  scholarship  is  essentially  narrow  and 
selfish;  the  really  generous  student  is  he  who  works,  not  for  the  culti- 
vation of  his  own  mind,  but  for  the  glory  of  his  college.  As  if  a  college 
could  derive  glory  from  anything  but  the  fulfilment  of  its  proper  mis- 
sion, the  cultivation  of  the  individual  minds  entrusted  to  it!  The  altru- 
istic tone  assumed  by  devotees  of  college  amusements  is  peculiarly  irritat- 
ing. I  am  willing  that  children  should  make  mud  pies:  it  is  their  nature 
to.  But  when  they  begin  to  declare  that  they  are  making  mud  pies,  not 
for  their  own  delectation,  but  for  the  embellishment  of  their  city,  it  is 
time  they  were  sent  on  errands  for  their  mothers." 

A  man  at  play  may  be  at  his  best  or  at  his  worst.  The  more 
natural  the  play — that  is  the  less  of  ulterior  purpose,  the  more 
the  enjoyment  and  the  better  the  effects.  Athletic  sports  must  be 
wholesome  in  spirit  to  be  profitable  to  the  body.  Only  when  fair- 


448  A   SOUND   MIND 

ness,  courage,  and  magnanimity  are  exercised  by  a  man  in  his 
sport  is  he  really  cheered  and  strengthened  by  it.  If  followed  in 
the  spirit  of  clean  sport,  it  would  probably  be  well  for  every  man, 
young  or  old,  to  have  some  outdoor  play,  some  sporting  interest. 

In  this  connection  I  offer  one  suggestion  directly  to  students, 
if  I  may  be  permitted  a  second  time*  in  this  book  to  digress  in 
that  way  from  the  subjects  of  organization  and  administration. 

I  think  it  was  Eobert  Louis  Stevenson  who  has  said:  "Man- 
kind lives  not  by  bread  alone,  but  also  by  catch-phrases."  There 
are  mauy  catch-phrases  whose  masked  or  perverted  meanings  work 
infinite  mischief.  They  are  the  unjust  stewards  of  the  precepts 
of  wisdom.  One  of  them — perhaps  more  dinned  in  the  ears  of 
college  students  than  any  other — is,  mens  sana  in  corpore  sano, 
which  is  commonly  perverted  to  mean  that,  the  way  to  have  a 
healthy  mind  is  to  have  a  healthy  body.  All  possible  changes  are 
rung  on  this  theme,  and  the  false  emphasis  in  each  makes  them 
all  harmful  lies.  Bodily  health  is,  indeed,  of  great  value,  and  a 
healthy  mind  in  a  healthy  body  is  the  perfect  estate.  Of  course, 
also,  soundness  of  the  innermost  citadel  of  the  vital  organism  is 
essential  for  the  sane  existence  of  mind  in  connection  with  body. 
But  for  the  matters  commonly  referred  to,  the  health  of  the  mind 
does  not  depend  on  the  health  of  the  body;  and,  although  the 
latter  is  valuable,  the  former  is  of  incomparably  greater  value. 
To  mention  them  as  co-ordinate  is  to  sink  to  depths  of  folly. 
Verily,  he  that  seeketh  his  life  in  such  ways  shall  lose  it.  It  is 
evident  that  men  having  healthy  bodies  are  frequently  unwise  or 
corrupt;  that  men  strong  a?  bullocks  may  be  weak-willed  and 
cowardly;  that  men  with  perfect  digestion  and  circulation  may 
be  scoundrels.  The  frequency  of  healthy  minds — brave,  strong, 
generous,  wise  spirits — in  bodies  suffering  from  bacterial  invasions 

*Page  420. 


A   SOUND   MIND  449 

and  other  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,  is  equally  evident.  Yet  the 
catch-phrase  has  done  its  work.  Unmanly  fear  of  death  and  of 
sickness  is  more  prevalent  than  it  has  ever  been  hitherto.  Another 
consequence  is  the  present  contempt  for  old  age.*  Old  age  brings 
infirmities,  and  is  naturally  despised  by  those  who  suppose  that 
a  sound  body  is  the  condition  for  soundness  of  mind.**  Prepos- 
terous notions  about  eugenics  are  also  spreading, — which  both  deny 
the  most  significant  discoveries  of  genetics  and  confound  all  values 
for  the  true  human  ew-genics.  Many  discussions  of  the  subject 
would  be  reasonable  only  if  men  were  bred  for  the  shambles  to 
be  eaten.  I  have  known  men  no  taller  than  Julius  Caesar,  or 
even  as  short  as  Napoleon  I,  who  have  stood  bravely  before  dan- 
gers that  would  have  made  some  longer  legs  smite  together  at 


*I  know  that  Montesquieu  in  his  Spirit  of  Laws  shows  how  disrespect 
for  old  age  follows  the  specific  "corruption"  of  democracy  which  takes 
place  when  every  citizen  would  be  on  a  level  with  those  chosen  to  com- 
mand and  the  people  want  to  manage  everything  directly — to  legislate 
for  the  Senate,  to  execute  for  the  magistrate,  and  to  decide  for  the  judges. 
He  is  doubtless  correct,  but  each  influence  has  reinforced  the  other,  and 
each  grows  by  what  it  feeds  on.  His  description  of  the  characteristic 
effects  of  the  specific  corruption  peculiar  for  democratic  institutions,  and 
therefore  to  be  especially  guarded  against,  may  sound  to  us  like  prophecy, 
but  it  was  calm  analysis: 

"The  people  are  desirous  of  exercising  the  functions  of  the  magistrates, 
wh«  cease  to  be  revered.  The  deliberations  of  the  Senate  are  slighted; 
all  respect  is  then  laid  aside  for  the  Senators;  and  consequently  for  old 
age  [italics  mine].  If  there  is  no  respect  for  old  age,  there  will  be  none 
presently  for  parents;  deference  to  husbands  will  likewise  be  thrown  off, 
and  submission  to  masters.  This  license  will  soon  become  general,  and 
the  trouble  of  command  be  as  fatiguing  as  that  of  obedience.  Wives, 
children,  servants  will  shake  off  all  subjection.  No  longer  will  there  be 
any  such  thing  as  manners,  order,  or  virtue." 

**A  young  U.  S.  Senator  a  few  months  ago  assured  an  audience  that 
men  over  fifty  are  no  longer  of  any  use  in  public  affairs,  and  the  Vice 
President  of  the  United  States  in  an  address  delivered  a  few  days  ago 
to  the  students  of  Wabash  College  declared,  with  implied  approval  and 
congratulations  to  the  young  if  correctly  reported:  "The  old  man  is  be- 
ing shoved  off  the  stage  everywhere.  Failing  physical  vision  is  assumed 
to  mark  a  like  diminution  of  intellectual  sight." 


450  A   SOUND   MIND 

the  knees.  Comeliness  and  bodily  health  should  be  conserved  and 
disease  resisted  by  all  sane  methods;  but  for  the  most  important 
issues  of  human  life,  the  true  eugenics  would  deem  the  child  of 
a  consumptive  better  born  and  more  fortunately  environed  than 
the  child  of  a  fanatic.  It  is  better  to  have  a  cancer  in  the  soma 
than  cruelty  in  the  soul. 

It  is  important  for  life  wisdom  to  learn  at  the  outset  and  very 
clearly,  that  a  man  may  live  a  strong  life,  and  a  happy  one,  in 
spite  of  a  frail  body  and  much  sickness.  I  take  it  that  all  of  us 
have  had  opportunity  to  see,  had  we  eyes  to  see,  men  with  impaired 
physical  strength  quietly  bearing  heavy  burdens  that  would  have 
broken  the  nerve  and  spirit  of  many  men  in  perfect  health, — 
others  enduring  bodily  pain  and  weakness,  seldom  allowed  to  mar 
cheerfulness  or  interrupt  industry,  which  would  almost  any  day 
have  sent  the  majority  of  stouter  men  complainingly  to  bed. 

"If  you  can  force  your  heart  and  nerve  and  sinew 

To  serve  your  turn  long  after  they  are  gone, 
And  so  hold  on  when  there  is  nothing  in  you 
Except  the  will  which  says  to  them  hold  on, 
— You'll  be  a  man,  my  son." 

Seek  and  preserve  health  and  grace  and  strength  of  body,  but 

• 
seek  also,  and  ~by  different  paths,  a  healthy  mind  filled  with  the 

treasure  of  wholesome  principles,  strong  in  will  power  and  loyal 
affection  and  the  spirit  of  helpfulness.  Cast  not  pearls  before 
swine  nor  help  fools  to  power,  and  restrain  or  punish  the  out- 
rageous; but  let  manly  strength  and  .succor  flow  from  you  to 
others,  sustaining  and  comforting  as  far  as  your  line  can  reach, 
according  to  the  need  your  kindly  eyes  have  seen.  Live  a  life 
that  would  be  a  valiant  and  profitable  one,  though  terminated  at 
any  stage;  for  strength  of  life  lies  not  in  length  of  days:  "Wis- 
dom is  gray  hairs  unto  men,  and  an  unspotted  life  is  ripe  old  age." 


DORMITORIES   AND   FRATERNITIES  451 

Dormitories  and  Fraternities. 

The  portion  of  time  that  a  university  student  spends,  or  ought 
to  spend,  in  his  substitute  for  a  home  (at  study  table,  in  social 
intercourse,  at  meals,  bathing  and  dressing,  and  in  bed)  evidently 
makes  the  conditions  for  that  large  part  of  student  life  and  work 
abundantly  important.  Of  course,  it  does  not  follow,  in  reason, 
that  a  university  ought  to  take  charge  of  a  matter  simply  because 
it  is  of  great  importance;  but  in  this  case  there  will  be  no  dis- 
pute between  more  discriminating  administrators  and  those  whose 
policies  or  consciences  impel  them  to  attempt  official  direction  and 
control  in  every  sphere. 

Unless  the  general  explanation  offered  in  this  book  be  accepted, 
I  do  not  see  how  it  can  be  explained  why  many  universities  have 
not  set  their  own  houses  in  better  order  before  extending  to  teach 
"all  the  people"  cooking  and  house  sanitation  and  decoration  and 
other  arts  of  domesticity,  neglected  for  the  thousands  of  young 
men  and  women  so  earnestly  summoned  to  their  classic  halls. 
The  public  halls  are  generally  ample  and  sometimes  gorgeous,  but 
most  students  in  state  universities  and  colleges*  "room"  in  the 
domiciles  of  needy  citizens,  or  in  crowded  boarding  houses,  or  in 
the  cells  of  big  barracks.  This  condition  is  not  always  as  terrible 
as  it  appears  to  some  critics;  but  it  is  not  as  it  should  be,  and 
few  universities  lack  resources  to  improve  it.  It  would  be  well 
to  abate  the  hubbub  about  many  pretentious  "movements"  for 
student-welfare,  and  quietly  supply  good  arrangements  (equal  to 
the  demand)  for  eating  and  bathing  and  sleeping,  and  for  study 
and  comradeship  and  hospitality.  Well  planned  college  homes 


*"The  state  colleges  and  universities  contain  more  than  half  of  all  the 
students  and  their  enrollment  is  increasing  at  about  twice  the  rate  of 
that  of  the  private  institutions.  .  .  .  [They]  have  provided  practically 
no  dormitories,  but  have  relegated  their  students  to  the  execrable  board- 
ing houses  of  a  typical  college  town." — Birdseye's  The  Reorganisation  of 
Our  Colleges,  1909. 


452  WELL   PLANNED   HOMES 

would  contribute  more*  to  the  welfare,  uplift,  and  social  develop- 
ment of  the  student  body  than  all  the  exhortations  about  those 
"causes"  ever  vented. 

Well  planned  college  homes,  in  my  judgment,  will  be  houses 
accommodating  groups  of  less  than  thirty  if  meals  are  served  in 
the  home,  or  groups  not  much  larger  even  if  meals  be  provided  in 
separate  commons.  Each  house  will  have  rooms  at  different  prices, 
according  to  size  and  desirability  and  as  occupied  singly  or  by 
room-mates.  The  groups  will  be,  as  far  as  practicable,  voluntary, 
under  regulations  requiring  a  minimum  of  experienced  students. 
Voluntary  grouping  would  cause  no  difficulties,  if  registration  for 
each  house  were  held  open  for  a  joint  application  (not  exceeding 
its  quota,  and  which  might  be  added  to  within  the  time  limit) 
until,  say,  one  week  before  the  opening  of  the  session.  After  that 
date  the  registrar  would  simply  assign  ungrouped  applicants  to 
unoccupied  rooms. 

The  idea  of  a  big  dormitory  exclusively  for  freshmen,  first  enter- 
tained by  the  new  administration  of  Harvard  University,  appears 
to  me  to  be  totally  mistaken.  "It  is  clear  to  everyone,"  said  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  speaking  of  the  proposed  residential  Quads  at  Prince- 
ton, "that  the  life  of  the  university  can  be  best  regulated  and 
developed  only  when  the  under  classmen  (we  in  constant  asso- 
ciation with  upper  classmen,  upon  such  terms  as  to  be  formed 
and  guided  by  them."  Italics  are  mine.)  Alas !  there  is  noth- 


*This  college  home  life  must  be  affirmatively  ennobling  and  uplifting 
or  it  will  be  quite  the  contrary.  It  must  be  constantly  affected  by  strong 
and  usually  older  characters,  whose  influence  must  be  exerted,  silently  but 
surely,  within  itself.  It  must  have  a  power  for  good,  inherent  in  itself, 
and  must  not  expect  to  find  any  true  substitute  for  this  in  some  mystic 
influences  that  the  college,  or  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  or  any  other  extrinsic  agency, 
institutional  in  its  nature,  can  exercise  from  without.  Our  tendency  is 
to  look  to  institutions  and  organizations  to  do  things  which  can  be  ac- 
complished only  by  ourselves.  These  outside  agencies  are  artificial  creat- 
ures which  may  stimulate  and  inspire,  but  which  can  never  supplant  the 
normal  home  force." — C.  E.  Birdseye. 


COLLEGE    HOME    LIFE  453 

ing — not  even  the  most  immutable  moral  axiom — that  "is  clear  to 
everyone";  but  some  things  ought  to  be  clear  to  everybody,  and 
President  Wilson's  statement  on  this  point  is  one  of  them. 

Some  of  Mr.  Birdseye^s  disquisitions  on  professional  or  technical 
points  miss  their  mark,  as  I  understand  those  matters;  but  the 
principles  on  which  he  bases  his  chapters  on  College  Home  Life 
and  College  Fraternities  are  thoroughly  sound.  For  example : 

"Neither  the  college  nor  the  faculty  as  a  body,  especially  in  the  large 
universities,  should  be  expected  to  control  directly  the  college  home  lives 
of  the  students,  for  they  can  never  take  the  place  of  an  inherent  force 
working  from  within — in  the  absence  of  which  there  can  be  no  true  home. 
But  this  force  must  be  permanent — not  shifting  from  year  to  year.  It 
must  have  real  authority — even  if  it  uses  only  moral  suasion.  It  must 
rule  by  the  consent  of  the  governed  and  because  they  appreciate  that  it 
works  for  their  best  good.  It  must  have  power  away  from  the  home  as 
well  as  within  its  walls — and  follow  the  student  even  to  the  strange  city. 
.  .  .  Whether  it  be  good,  bad,  or  indifferent,  there  is  such  a  moral 
force  at  work  in  every  college  home.  Except  as  this  force  is  ennobled 
we  cannot  hope  for  permanent  religious  or  moral  improvement  among 
our  students;  and  it  must  be  ennobled  by  human  example  and  sympathy 
and  not  by  institutional  ordinance.  .  .  . 

"The  college  home  life  was  .  .  .  most  important  in  our  forefathers' 
eyes,  for  they  saw  that  only  through  it  could  they  prepare  the  good 
ground  for  the  good  seed  and  make  good  citizens.  .  .  .  The  fore- 
fathers were  right  in  believing  that  this  goodness  of  the  ground  could  be 
secured  only  through  the  direct  and  intimate  touch  of  the  older  man 
upon  the  younger.  But  how,  in  our  large  institutions  and  under  modern 
condtions,  are  we  to  bring  about  a  close  touch  between  the  younger  and 
older  men  which  shall  constantly  unlift  the  younger  men  in  their  college 
family  lives?  Is  there  any  agency  through  which  this  is  being  or  can  be 
done?  Or  anything  to  indicate  that  up  to  the  present  time  only  one 
such  agency  has  been  developed  in  a  large  way?  If,  under  modern  condi- 
tions, there  has  been  any  distinct  and  widespread  growth  and  development 
of  the  college  home,  we  should  study  it  most  carefully  and  with  an  open 
mind  .  .  .  and  use  it  as  a  model  for  building  up  other  helpful  homes 
which  shall  embrace  every  student." 


454  THE  COLLEGE  FRATERNITY 

The  one  agency  referred  to  is  the  college  fraternity. 

"We  continue  to  regard  the  fraternities  as  mere  secret  societies,  and 
hence  to  give  undue  significance  to  their  secret  featurs,  failing  to  realize 
how  much  more  important  are  their  home  features  .  .  . 

"Since  the  older  private  institutions  have  come,  more  and  more,  to  de- 
pend upon  the  fraternities  for  housing  space,  and  merely  get  along  with 
patching  up  their  barnlike  dormitories,  and  [most  of]  the  state  universi- 
ties have  avowedly  pursued  the  course  of  not  having  any  dormitories  at 
all,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  why  the  fraternity  home  is  now  the  typical 
college  home,  and  in  many  cases  the  best  type  of  home  in  any  particular 
college  .  .  . 

"When  one  speaks  favorably  of  the  part  which  the  fraternities  have 
played  and  can  play  in  solving  a  portion  of  the  college  home  life  prob- 
lem, he  is  continually  met  with  the  suggestion,  "But  that  does  not  pro- 
vide for  the  nonfraternity  men."  This  is  true  and  lamentable,  but  it  is 
an  arraignment  of  the  colleges  and  not  of  the  fraternities,  and  merely 
proves  that  substantially  all  the  progress  so  far  made  toward  a  wide 
solution  of  the  college  home  problem  has  been  made  by  the  fraternities 
and  not  by  the  colleges.  College  dormitories,  whether  with  or  without 
commons,  are  usually  barracks,  and  not  homes  in  the  true  sense,  and 
are  simply  a  barracks  form  of  solving  the  college  home  life  problem.  It 
must  be  conceded,  therefore,  that  the  question  of  homes  for  the  non- 
fraternity  men  is  merely  that  portion  of  the  institution's  own  problem 
which  the  fraternities  have  not  solved  for  it;  and  that  it  is  what  the 
fraternities  have  done  which  has  thrown  into  bold  relief  this  failure  of 
the  colleges  to  do  anything!  .  .  . 

"Too  often  the  fraternities  are  the  only  factors  by  which  at  present 
the  college  course  can  round  out  the  social  and  home  sides  of  its  training 
of  the  future  citizens.  The  assistance  which  the  fraternities  have  ren- 
dered to  the  college  in  performing  this  portion  of  its  duty  to  the  com- 
monwealth must  not  be  overlooked  or  sneered  at.  In  this  regard  the  ques- 
tion is  not  as  to  whether  the  fraternities  have  done  their  part  well,  or 
as  well  as  the  colleges  used  to  do,  but  rather  whether  the  colleges  have 
done  anything  at  all.  If,  then,  the  college  home  conditions  have  become 
bad  it  has  not  been  primarily  the  fault  of  the  fraternities,  but  rather  be- 
cause the  institutions  have  done  substantially  nothing,  and  have  not  even 
given  the  subject  any  intelligent  study  .  .  . 

"The  history  of  the  college  failure  in  recent  years  in  regard  to  the  col- 


THE  COLLEGE  FRATERNITY  455 

lege  home  is  so  largely  made  up  of  errors  and  omissions  that  if  these 
should  be  excepted  there  would  be  little  left.  But  surely  this  failure  of 
the  colleges  gives  them  no  right  to  find  fault  with  what  the  fraternities 
have  accomplished  of  their  own  accord,  and  often  against  the  opposition 
of  the  college  itself.  A  friend,  who  was  a  nonfraternity  man  not  from 
necessity  but  out  of  respect  for  his  father's  prejudices,  but  who  thor- 
oughly believes  in  the  fraternities,  asks  me  to  suggest  'some  home  life  for 
the  nonfraternity  man,  and  some  remedy  for  their  helpless  and  hopeless 
condition,  son*  parents,  faculty  care,  or  any  saving  grace  of  upper  class 
or  alumni  supervision.'  Probably  there  are  many  to  whom  this  language 
seems  too  strong,  but  it  expresses  the  thought  which  I  have  heard  voiced 
many  times  in  colleges  where  the  fraternities  are  strong. 

"It  is  at  this  point  that  we  may  see  why  the  fraternities  are  charged 
with  being  exclusive  and  undemocratic.  Certainly  they  do,  so  far  as  they 
can,  attempt  to  train  their  members  in  social  etiquette  and  polished  man- 
ners, and  thus  make  them  men  of  the  world,  and  round  out  the  home  and 
social  sides  of  their  characters;  but  the  college  no  longer  does  anything 
of  this  kind  directly.  The  advantages  thus  evidently  given  by  the  fra- 
ternities are  unjustly  laid  up  against  them,  instead  of  being  charged  to 
their  credit  and  against  the  colleges  themselves,  which  should  at  least 
attempt  to  provide  for  the  nonfraternity  men  some  of  the  same  kind  of 
training  which  is  given  in  the  homes  of  the  fraternities.  This  was  made 
very  clear  to  me  in  an  earnest  conversation  with  a  well-known  professor 
who  had  put  himself  through  a  nonfraternity  college,  but  whose  younger 
brothers  had  gone  through  another  college  in  which  they  became  promi- 
nent members  of  fraternities.  I  found  that  his  complaint  was  based  upon 
the  fact  that  the  fraternities  gave  social  training  in  polite  accomplish- 
ments to  those  who  needed  them  least,  having  previously  had  them  at 
home;  but  that  they  did  not,  nor  did  the  college,  give  this  training  to 
the  nonfraternity  men  who  were  usually  most  in  need  of  it.  But  a  little 
discussion  made  the  professor  admit  that  this  was  in  fact  a  potent  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  the  fraternity  and  against  the  college.  The  former,  by 
intelligently  and  effectively  exercising  its  home-making  functions,  was  not 
preventing  the  latter  from  doing  the  same  thing  in  some  manner;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  was  showing  it,  very  strikingly,  how  it  could  be  done 
and  thus  that  it  needed  to  be  done.  .  .  .  This  mistaken  point  of  view 
lies  at  the  bottom  of  many  of  the  complaints  against  fraternities.  They 
are  unjustly  accused  of  being  undemocratic,  aristocratic,  and  exclusive, 
merely  because,  in  the  privacy  of  well-kept  homes,  they  do  well  their  own 


456  THE    FRATERNITY    HOME 

home-making  work,  and  thus  make  clear  Alma  Mater's  failure  either  to 
round  out  this  side  of  the  characters  of  the  nonfraternity  men  or  to  pro- 
vide a  substitute  to  carry  on  this  work,  although  the  nonfraternity  men 
undoubtedly  need  it  more  than  the  average  fraternity  member.  The  com- 
plaint is  an  eminently  just  one,  but  against  the  wrong  party.  Judgment 
should  be  ordered  for  the  respondents  and  against  the  complainants,  with 
heavy  costs. 

"It  is  clearly  evident,  therefore,  that  the  enormous  growth  of  the  fra- 
ternity homes  has  not  been  fortuitous.  The  fraternities,  in  their  present 
shape,  have  grown  out  of  the  need  for  a  new  form  of  college  family  life; 
they  have  in  part  supplied  such  need,  and  thereby  have  directed  attention 
to  it;  but  they  have  not  created  the  need,  and,  like  other  homes,  they  are 
largely  limited,  in  supplying  that  need,  to  the  good  they  can  do  within 
their  own  doors  and  to  the  example  which  they  can  set  to  those  without. 
In  our  review  of  the  history  of  college  administrative  condtions  we  shall 
find  many  proofs  of  low  colege  ideals,  practice,  and  methods.  .  .  . 
Our  institutions  have  not  understood  how  the  college  secret  society  was 
developing  into  the  college  home;  nor  have  they  perceived  that  the  fra- 
ternities could  solve  only  a  small  portion  of  this  home  problem,  and  that 
the  college  itself  must  do  the  rest  .  .  . 

"The  college  family  life,  like  that  of  any  other  home,  is  concealed  from 
the  public  view  and  fully  known  only  to  members  of  the  family.  Other- 
wise it  is  not  a  true  family  life.  To  be  ideal  and  to  give  it  permanence, 
the  college  home  should  embrace  the  upper  and  lower  classmen,  the  grad- 
uate and  undergraduate — for  all  these  can  be  educated  and  developed 
therein.  Our  children  educate  us  almost  as  much  as  we  can  educate  them. 
The  older  brother  is  trained  and  developed  through  the  responsibility  of 
setting  an  example  to  and  protecting  the  younger  children  who  look  up 
to  him  as  the  'big  brother.'  An  only  child  is  likely  to  bej  spoiled  because 
he  lives  only  to  himself.  Hence  there  are  true  educative  conditions  in 
the  fraternity  home  where  members  of  all  classes  are  intimately  gathered 
together.  .  .  . 

"A  college  home  to  be  successful  and  permanent  must  be  small  and 
congenial,  because  it  selects  and  trains  its  own  members,  and  has  some 
of  the  separateness  and  exclusiveness  of  a  home.  In  two  many  institu- 
tions the  moral  tendency  of  the  student  life  as  a  whole  is  distinctly  down- 
ward, and  any  fraternity  chapter  therein  will  encounter  great  difficulties 
which  attempts  consistently  to  raise  its  own  life  contrary  to  the  drift  of 
the  college  itself,  which  is  merely  the  resultant  of  the  home  life  of  gen- 


THE    COLLEGE    FRATERNITY  457 

erations  of  students.  The  college  homes  are  so  true  an  index  of  the  gen- 
eral life  that  if  we  can  know  the  inner  family  life  of  the  fraternity  homes 
in  a  college,  we  can  infallibly  construct  therefrom  the  dominant  moral 
influences  that  rule  the  ninety  per  cent  of  student  life  in  that  institution, 
and  thereby  determine  the  true  educational  results  of  its  other  depart- 
ments." 

Such  principles  as  these  stand  on  their  own  power  of  appeal; 
neither  argument  nor  authority  could  add  much  for  those  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  facts.  For  readers  who  have  no  personal 
knowledge  of  the  inner  life  of  our  colleges  and  universities,  I  add 
the  following  most  competent  testimony: 

President  Sehurman,  speaking  in  1909  of  Cornell,  says: 

"While  the  intellectual  and  scholarly  spirit  and  organization  are  on 
a  high  plane,  the  social  life  leaves  much  to  be  desired.  The  majority  of 
the  young  men — all  except  those  in  fraternities — are  scattered  in  boarding 
and  lodging  houses  throughout  the  city.  The  experience  of  American  stu- 
dents seems  to  show  that  the  fraternity  house,  accommodating  two  or 
three  dozen  students,  presents  in  the  matter  of  size  and  arrangement  an 
ideal  for  the  residential  hall;  it  is  large  enough  for  a  community  and  not 
too  large  for  intimate  acquaintance  and  friendship;  it  provides  studies* 
bedrooms,  bathrooms,  kitchen,  dining-room,  and  commons  room." 

If  eastern  experience  be  contemned,  President  Van  Hise  has 
borne  witness  for  the  leading  western  state  university: 

"One  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  favor  of  the  fraternities  is  the 
need  of  social  life  in  which  a  young  man  may  get  social  discipline  and 
manners — a  necessary  part  of  his  education." 

Against  all  this  are  two  sorts  of  opponents,  one  envenomed  and 
active,  the  other  obstructive  without  hostility.  The  latter  is  exem- 
plified by  the  president  who  wrote  to  Mr.  Birdseye: 

"We  have  a  strong  feeling  in  a  university  town  like  this,  where  there 
are  2,300  students  in  a  town  of  10,000,  that  we  can  maintain  the  home 
life  of  students  by  really  disseminating  them  in  homes.  We  find,  how- 
ever, that  there  is  a  tendency  to  boarding  houses  and  distressingly  poor 


458  COLLEGE   HOMES 

living,  hence  our  movement  looking  towards  the  commons  with  certain 
dormitory  privileges.  The  fraternities  are  aiding  us  by  having  their  own 
homes." 

Here  is  no  hostility  to  the  fraternity  homes,  their  helpfulness 
is  acknowledged;  but  what  manner  of  intelligence  permits  "a 
strong  feeling"  that  a  town  would  afford  desirable  homes  in  the 
houses  of  its  citizens  for  college  students  numbering  nearly  one 
quarter  of  the  total  population?  What  habits  of  catch- word  plead- 
ing are  revealed  in  the  argument  that  the  "homes"  opened  to 
several  boarders  are  homes  for  the  students  in  the  intended  mean- 
ing of  the  latter  word?  As  Mr.  Birdseye  says:  "What  is  there 
homelike  or  home-making  about  the  average  cheap  boarding  house 
of  a  college  town?  On  the  contrary  for  the  student  its  tendency 
is  rather  'to  drive  him  to  drink/  or  something  worse."  But  ob- 
structionists of  this  sort  may  readily  become  supporters  of  the 
needed  measures.  They  know  that  the  fraternity  home  is  as  good 
as  the  prevailing  manners  and  morals  of  the  student  body  allow, 
and  that  it  would  make  no  material  difference*  whether  the  col- 
lege barred  fraternities  and  supplied  houses  sufficient  to  accom- 
modate all  in  voluntary  groups,  or  allowed  some  to  be  chapter 
houses  and  supplied  the  rest.  It  should  not  be  difficult  to  lead 
them  to  see  clearly  that  scattered  boarding  in  the  town  is  generally 
not  good  for  the  young  men  (and  far  worse  for  young  women), 
and  that  neither  big  dormitories  nor  arbitrarily-made  smaller 
groups  can  yield  the  desired  home  features  and  influences. 

With  those  who  seek  only  to  tear  down  it  seems  useless  to 
argue, — though  they  should  be  argued  against  for  the  enlighten- 
ment of  a  too  credulous  public. 

It  would  not  be  a  matter  of  vital  importance,  if  any  university 
or  all  universities  should  decide  to  bar  out  fraternities  and  supply 
houses  for  student-home  groups,  if  the  step  were  taken  in  a  just 


'Except  in  respect  to  alumni   influences.     See  page  461. 


THE    SELECTION  459 

and  honorable  way.  But  any  university  fosters  a  viper  that  may 
ultimately  sting  it  to  death  or  madness,  when  it  countenances  such  \/ 

attacks  on  the  fraternities  as  are  now  disgracing  some  state  uni- 
versities. Whatever  else  they  may  be,  the  college  fraternity  and 
chapter  house  are  no  more  "undemocratic"  than  the  family  and 
the  family  home  are  undemocratic;  indeed,  those  who  are  attack- 
ing the  one  today  may  attack  the  other  tomorrow.  "If  they  do 
these  things  in  the  green  tree,  what  shall  be  done  in  the  dry?" 
Omens  thicken  in  many  quarters. 

If  the  life  of  the  fraternity  groups  in  any  college  is  bad,  the 
ways  of  the  student-body  from  which  they  have  been  selected  are 
never  any  better.  The  fraternities'  ideals  of  selection  are  often 
compromised  for  numbers  and  other  meretritious  purposes,  yet 
much  less  than  ideals  have  been  compromised  by  the  governing 
bodies  and  administrative  officers.  The  selection  at  least  tends 
toward  decency  and  certain  fundamental  virtues — such  as  reli- 
ability. These  facts  have,  indeed,  no  logical  bearing  on  the  at- 
tacks against  the  college  fraternity  now  agitating  several  state 
universities,  for  in  them  selection  of  any  sort  is  denounced  as 
undemocratic.  That  principle  is  categorically  avowed  in  printed 
appeals  to  the  people  and  in  the  bills  introduced  in  legislatures; 
for,  of  course,  in  every  case  the  agitators  try  to  call  in  the  legis- 
latures to  settle  this  affair  of  college  life.  The  character  of  the 
actual  selection  is  not,  however,  altogether  irrelevant,  because, 
although  logically  superfluous,  the  complaint  is  added  that  it  13 
based  on  money.  The  charge  is  a  slander,  as  is  proved  by  the 
number  of  invitations  regretfully  declined  on  account  of  the  neces- 
sary expense.  There  is  a  distinction  here  too  fine  for  down- 
leveling  agitators  or  for  a  mob  deceived  by  them,  but  it  will  be 
plain  to  the  candid  reader.  The  expense  is  often  burdensome 
because  these  groups  are  struggling  to  pay  for  houses  which  ought 
to  be  supplied  by  the  college  at  low  rentals;  sometimes  the  neces- 


460  CLUBS   IN    NON-FRATERNITY    COLLEGES 

sary  expense  of  commodious  quarters  and  good  service  is  more 
than  a  much  desired  man  can  afford.  Too  much  weight  is  fre- 
quently given  to  high  marks  in  the  registrar's  records  or  to  signs 
of  popularity,  but  the  selection  is  based  on  character*  and  con- 
geniality for  friendly  intimacy.  Poverty  interferes  only  as  it  does 
in  all  the  affairs  of  life  that  involve  pecuniary  cost.  Companion- 
ship is  not  limited  by  the  club  connections.  Intimate  friendships 
between  men  who  are  and  men  who  are  not  members  of  frater- 
nities flourish  freely. 

It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  discuss  the  American  college  frater- 
nity as  an  abstract  idea.  Some  countries  get  along  very  well 
without  it,  just  as  they  get  along  without  the  American  forms  of 
"college  spirit"  and  alumni  devotion.**  It  is  enough  to  say  that 
the  societies  and  groups  formed  in  non-fraternity  colleges***  are 


*Mistakes  are  made,  but  no  reputable  college  fraternity  ever  wittingly 
extends  an  invitation  to  a  man  capable,  for  instance,  of  wishing  to  de- 
prive others  of  comforts  or  pleasures  that  he  cannot  himself  afford,  or 
of  whimpering  against  the  freedom  of  others  to  choose  their  own  associates. 

**The  German  student  goes  from  one  university  to  another;  he  thinks 
of  his  teachers,  not  of  the  institution  where  at  last  he  happened  to  stand 
for  his  degree.  If  one  were  telling  of  his  degree  in  philosophy,  he  might, 
for  instance,  say,  "I  heard  Paulsen  and  Kuno  Fischer,  each  for  four 
semesters."  Whether  the  degree  came  at  Berlin  or  Heidelberg  would  be 
an  immaterial  point." 

***A  recent  highly  colored  story  of  college  life  was  popularly  understood 
to  be  descriptive  of  the  college  fraternities  (as  evidenced  by  innumerable 
editorial  and  "Open  Forum"  comments),  whereas  it  dealt  with  a  society 
in  a  nonfraternity  college. 

The  anti-fraternity  circular  mentioned  in  the  next  paragraph  published 
the  statement:  "Last  sumer  a  man  prominent  in  State  Politics,  a  former 
fraternity  man  at  Princeton  University,  made  a  tour  of  the  high  schools 
in  opposition  to  fraternities  at  the  State  Universiity."  There  have  been 
no  fraternities,  nor  even  local  secret  societies,  at  Princeton  for  more  than 
half  a  century.  The  class  clubs,  peculiar  to  Princeton,  are  more  expen- 
sive and  more  exclusive  than  the  fraternity  chapters  at  any  other  college. 
E.  E.  Slosson  says:  "The  lines  are  so  sharply  drawn  between  the  classes 
that  a  Freshman  cannot  cultivate  a  friendship  with  a  Sophomore,  or  a 
Sophomore  with  a  Junior,  without  being  suspected  of  improper  motives, 
and  a  man  has  to  be  careful  from  the  start  to  be  seen  always  with  the 


ANTI-FRATERNITY   AGITATIONS  461 

subject  to  the  same  abuses,  and  lack  the  moral  support  that  comes 
from  the  central  authorities  of  the  national  organizations. 

The  fraternities  afford  a  channel  for  an  alumni  influence  which 
might  be  and  often  is  exerted  helpfully.  This  is  at  least  worth 
considering:  Mr.  Birdseye  deems  it  a  very  important  factor: 

"In  the  nonfraternity  colleges  there  is  no  similar  agency  whereby  the 
alumni  are  systematically  put  in  touch  with  the  family  lives  of  the  un- 
dergraduates. I  have  discussed  with  the  college  authorities,  alumni,  and 
undergraduates  of  the  leading  nonfraternity  colleges  the  relations  of  their 
graduates  to  the  undergraduates  in  the  college  home  plane,  and  have 
found  that,  almost  without  exception,  there  was  not  even  a  conception  of 
close  co-operation  between  the  alumni  and  students  such  as  prevails  in  a 
good  fraternity  chapter.  In  the  leading  nonfraternity  university  it  was 
baldly  put  by  an  undergraduate  as  follows:  'The  alumni  are  back  num- 
bers, and  if  they  do  not  mind  their  own  business  we  will  make  them  do 
so.  We  have  no  use  for  them  except  to  help  us  in  athletics.'  .  .  . 
Instructors  who  had  come  from  fraternity  colleges  have  repeatedly  told 
me  they  had  been  shocked  to  find  that  these  words  correctly  expressed  the 
sentiments  with  which  the  alumni  were  regarded  by  the  undergraduates 
in  that  university.  Up  to  the  present  time  there  is  no  agency  in  the  non- 
fraternity  college  through  which  the  influence  of  the  alumni  can  be  per- 
manently and  surely  exerted  in  the  college  home." 

In  the  anti-fraternity  agitations  of  which  I  have  knowledge, 
the  most  serious  feature  is  the  part  played  by  the  faculties.  In 
some  cases  members  of  the  faculty  have  deliberately  incited  stu- 
dents amenable  to  such  a  suggestion  to  raise  the  outcry.  In  a 
pamphlet  circulated  last  year  all  over  a  certain  State  by  a  student 
committee  in  its  state  university,  appealing  for  popular  support 
of  their  bill  in  the  legislature  to  outlaw  college  fraternities,  the 
committee  said:  "We  have  been  criticised  for  appealing  to  the 
legislature  in  advance  of  placing  the  matter  before  the  Faculty 


right  set,  or  he  will  be  shut  out  from  an  upper-class  club."  This  is  ex- 
aggeration ;  but  no  one  could  say  anything  approaching  it  about  the  fra- 
ternities in  other  colleges.  If  fraternities  were  outlawed,  less  desirable 
substitutes  would  take  their  place. 


462  SOME   PECULIAR   REGULATIONS 

or  Board  of  Regents.  .  .  .  "We  were  advised  that  the  authori- 
ties would  prefer  to  have  such  higher  authority  as  is  represented 
by  the  legislature  act  in  the  premises,  and  so  place  the  responsi- 
bility on  the  law-making  power  of  the  state  in  the  first  instance." 
In  a  preceding  paragraph  the  same  speakers  declared  that  they 
were  "representing  three-fourths  of  the  student  body,"  which  is 
a  gross  exaggeration,  and  more  artful  misrepresentations  abound 
in  their  lengthy  complaint;  but  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  the 
statement  quoted  was  substantially  true.  I  do  not  mean  that 
either  the  faculty  or  the  regents  wanted  the  legislature  to  inter- 
fere, but  that  I  believe  the  students  "were  advised"  as  stated,  and 
that  the  advice  came,  as  implied,  from  members  of  the  faculty. 
The  public  acts  of  this  faculty  show  plainly  enough  how  some  of 
its  members  have  succeeded  in  getting  their  ideas  of  government 
applied  to  the  fraternities.  Among  its  ordinances  are: 

(1)  No  student  not  a  regular  member  of  the  fraternity  may 
board  or  room  in  a  chapter  house.  (2)  No  student  can  be  pledged 
or  initiated  before  he  has  passed  in  one  session  at  least  four  full 
courses.  (3)  No  one  may  board  or  lodge  in  a  chapter  house 
unless  he  passed  in  at  least  four  courses  in  the  preceding  term, 
and  one  boarding  or  lodging  in  a  chapter  house  whose  mid-term 
report  shows  he  is  not  passing  in  at  least  four  courses,  or  who 
at  the  end  of  a  term  shall  fail  to  pass  in  at  least  four  courses, 
must  cease  to  board  or  lodge  in  such  a  house  and  may  not  return 
until  he  has  passed  in  at  least  four  courses  in  a  subsequent  term. 
Furthermore,  the  faculty  dictated  to  a  "Pan  Hellenic  Council" 
vested  with  authority  to  bind  all  the  fraternities,  and  by  threat 
of  'worse  and  mere  of  it'  coerced  it  into  adopting  regulations  such 
as  the  following:  (a)  No  fraternity  man  may  entertain  in  any 
way  that  involves  expense  a  student  not  eligible  to  membership 
under  the  faculty  regulations, — lunches,  theater,  drives,  athletic 
contests,  etc.,  being  expressly  forbidden,  (b)  Non-fraternity 


SOME   PECULIAR   REGULATIONS  463 

men  shall  not  be  entertained  at  a  chapter  house  at  any  sort  of 
reception  given  by  a  fraternity,  (c)  After  pitiful  protests 
against  some  worse  provision,  the  representatives  of  the  faculty 
agreed  that  a  non-fraternity  man  might  take  a  meal  at  a  chapter 
house,  provided  that  any  one  man  may  not  be  invited  oftener 
than  once  in  any  one  month,  (d)  My  memorandum  of  some 
other  regulations  is  not  clear  enough  to  give  them  accurately; 
what  has  been  given  is  sufficient,  but  I  can  add  accurately:  "No 
intimation  shall  be  given  to  any  man  that  he  is  likely  to  receive" 
an  invitation  to  join  a  fraternity;  the  invitation  shall  be  sent  in 
writing;  and  "from  the  time  a  bid  is  sent  until  it  is  answered, 
the  subject  must  not  be  mentioned  to  the  recipient  during  that 
time  by  the  senders/' 

I  understand  that  no  fraternity  has  yet  withdrawn  the  charter 
of  its  chapter  at  this  university:  but  if  such  action  is  not  taken 
at  their  next  conventions  (unless  protest  against  the  conditions 
secures  remedy)  the  fraternities  will  make  themselves  a  party  to 
their  own  swift  deterioration.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that 
these  regulations  were  not  justly  characterized  and  protested 
against  in  the  faculty  meetings  at  which  they  were  passed.  I 
know  that  indignant  protests  were  made.  They  were  of  no  avail 
for  reasons  that  have  been  explained  in  previous  chapters.  To 
impose  these  indecorous  rules  upon  young  men  who  could  obey 
them  under  protest,  would  have  been  an  evil  folly  not  altogether 
without  parallel;  but  the  coercing  of  the  young  men  into  the  self- 
stultification  and  self-abasement  of  adopting  a  part  of  the  regu- 
lations themselves,  constitutes  the  moral  nadir  for  all  the  instances 
of  maladministration  by  college  authorities  with  which  observa- 
tion and  investigation  have  brought  me  acquainted. 

It  oppresses  and  almost  confuses  my  mind  and  heart  to  realize 
that  the  inconsistencies  of  these  laws  may  not  be  apparent  and 
their  spirit  offensive  to  every  reader, — seeing  that  they  were  en- 


464  SOME   PECULIAR   REGULATIONS 

acted  by  men  who  are  governing  a  big  university!  I  can  only 
point  out  some  things  that  seem  to  me  self-evident,  and  add  the 
fact  that  the  purpose  avowed  by  the  faculty  was  to  help  the  fra- 
ternities to  avoid  undemocratic  exclusiveness  and  low  scholarship, 
with  the  express  statement  that  "students  should  have  the  right, 
under  appropriate  restrictions  to  form  self-perpetuating  invitation 
clubs  :"* 

What  effect  on  "exclusiveness"  should  be  expected  from  (1)  and 
from  (a),  (b),  and  (c)  ?  The  inconsistency  affects  only  the 
authors;  how  will  these  laws  affect  the  home  life  of  their  victims? 
The  university  concerned  has  over  two  thousand  students;  it  pro- 
vides one  dormitory  for  about  one  hundred  men,  and  another  for 
less  than  one  hundred  women.  The  anti-fraternity  circular  con- 
tains among  its  accusations:  "Our  fraternities  here  are  growing 
more  and  more  ambitious  to  outdo  each  other  in  securing  ex- 
pensive chapter  houses  with  fine  appointments."  I  saw  none  (and 
I  think  I  have  seen  them  all)  as  "fine"  as  any  college  would  put  up 
in  building  its  own  student-home  houses.  The  fraternity  chapters, 
helped  by  their  alumni,  are  simply  trying  to  make  decent  homes. 
The  alternative  would  be  boarding  around  in  the  town.  Now 
comes  a  faculty  making  laws  that,  if  a  chapter  house  has  a  vacant 
room,  it  shall  not  be  occupied  by  a  man  who  is  not  a  member  of 
the  fraternity;  that  when  a  youth  comes  to  college  he  shall  not 
visit  even  an  elder  brother  in  his  chapter  home  at  meal  time 
oftener  than  once  in  one  month;  that  no  man  during  his  whole 
college  life,  unless  he  joins  a  fraternity,  may  have  free  intercourse 


•Referring  to  the  fraternities,  which  had  been  distinguished  from  "ap- 
plication" clubs,  e.  g.,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

At  this  point  the  report  presents  the  curious  remark:  "In  this  con- 
nection, it  may  be  stated  that  young  women  have  the  right  to  accept  or 
reject  the  acquaintance,  or  company,  of  any  man,  without  necessarily  rais- 
ing the  imputation  of  snobbishness  or  exclusiveness."  The  reader  may 
surmise  who  it  was  that  stood  in  need  of  this  piece  of  information;  the 
document  saith  not. 


SOME  PECULIAR  REGULATIONS  465 

with  friends  or  acquaintances  who  live  in  the  only  student-homes 
in  the  place;  and  so  on.  Imagine  a  couple  of  brothers  or  friends 
returning  from  a  walk*  at  supper  time,  parting  at  the  home  of 
the  elder — "Sorry  I  can't  ask  you  in.  old  man,  it  must  be  three 
weeks  yet  before  you  can  stop  with  us  again."  On  the  walls  of 
some  of  these  homes  may  be  hanging  the  motto — 

.  The  beauty  of  the  home  is  Order — 
The  peace  of  the  home  is  Contentment — 
The  glory  of  the  home  is  Hospitality. 

If  so,  they  may  have  turned  its  face  to  the  wall,  and  they  might 
write  on  the  back  of  it  Ichabod. 

The  advocates  of  these  laws  seem  unable  to  comprehend  the 
ideas  of  a  home  which  they  have  ruthlessly  desecrated;  but  Jet  me 
tell  them  that  they  reckoned  without  their  host,  if  the  "Against 
Fraternities"  circular  threw  them  into  a  panic  by  its  threat  that 
the  university  must  abolish  the  fraternity  homes  or  lose  the  ap- 
proval of  farmers.  Most  rural  homes  are  hospitable.  If  the  facts 
were  explained  to  the  farmers,  they  would  be  much  more  offended 
by  these  administrative  acts  than  if  every  fraternity  man  (instead 
of  possibly  two  in  a  hundred)  sported  an  automobile.  Many  farm- 
ers indulge  in  luxurious  distinctions  themselves,  and  those  who 
cannot  afford  procelain  bathtubs  and  hot  water,  or  automobiles, 
do  not  look  upon  the  use  of  those  things  as  "undemocratic," — for 
even  the  few  farmers  who  are  communists  generally  have  enough 
sense  and  character  to  distinguish  that  theory  from  democracy. 
As  to  the  two  young  women  of  whom  the  circular  says,  "the  humil- 
iation they  suffered  in  not  being  invited  to  join  a  sorority**  caused 


*Had  there  been  a  baseball  game  the  one  could  not  have  taken  the 
other  to  see  it. 

**Some  articles  have  been  published  in  which  extravagance  in  dress  has 
been  blamed  on  the  sororities.  That  opinion  is  obtuse.  The  sororitlt-s 
tend  slightly  to  moderate  this  particular  extravagance,  for  the  reason 
that  young  women  who  are  willing  to  extort  the  means  from  over-indul- 


466  SOME  PECULIAR  REGULATIONS 

them  to  leave  the  university,"  I  venture  to  guess  that  they  did  not 
come  from  "the  rural  population."  Country  girls  generally  have 
better  sense. 

The  whole  influence  of  university  life  ought  to  tend  to  lift 
souls  above  envy,  or  foolish  spending  beyond  present  fortune  in 
imitation  of  those  able  to  spend  freely.  Of  course,  it  should  cause 
neither  disappointment  nor  censure,  that  some  who  come  within 
its  sphere  of  influence  are  not  redeemed  from  vices  and  follies 
engendered  in  the  life  of  the  people  at  large;  but  what  ought  to 
be  said  of  a  university  in  which  young  men  and  young  women 
who  succumb  to  such  follies  are  officially  coddled,  as  nurses  pet 
babies  who  have  bitten  their  tongues  crying  out  against  the  naughty 
teeth?  If  a  student  leaves  a  "university"  of  this  sort,  avowing 


gent  fathers  are  a  little  restrained  by  the   fact  that  many  of  their  "sis- 
ters" are  not  able  to  do  so.     This  restraint  is  not  very  strong;  but  if 
competition  in  such  vanities  were  thoroughly  promiscuous,  the  considera- 
tion  that  is  given  to  the   narrower  resources  of  chosen  equals   and  com- 
panions  in   one   household   would   not  operate  at  all.     Alas!    nothing  but 
good  taste  and  certain  principles  now  fostered  only  in  exceptionally  high- 
minded  families  could  restrain  the  common  extravagance.     Sorority  mem- 
bership has  very  little  to  do  with  it,  either  way.     The  young  women  who 
spend  upwards  of  $100  a  month  on  clothes  would  be  spending  yet  more 
had  they  gone  into  "society"  at  their  home  towns  instead  of  going  to  col- 
lege,— and   they  will  be  no  more  considerate  of  their  husbands  than  they 
are    of   their   fathers.     Everywhere   this  extravagance   is   more   frequently 
committed   by  those  who  cannot,  than  by  those  who  can  afford   the  ex- 
pense;   parents  who  do  not  own  a  house  and  sometimes  find  difficulty  in 
paying   the   rent   for   the   one   they   live    in,   bring   up   daughters    in   this 
fashion.     The  condition  has  grown  up  in  the  mores  of  our  people,  but  is 
more  conspicuous  in  our  Western  than  in  our  Eastern  States.     In  both, 
girls  over-dress;    but   in   the  West,  high-school  girls  desire  to  wear  and 
many  of  them  do  wear  to  school  dresses  and  jewelry  more  elaborate  than 
any  seen   in    the   halls   of   Eastern   colleges,   and   such   as   some   surviving 
mothers  would  not  allow  daughters  to  wear,  while  still  at  school  or  college, 
even  to   parties  or   dances.     A   professor   in  the  university   in   which   this 
turmoil   about  fraternities  is  in  progress,  gave  it  out  that  he  had  inven- 
toried jewelry  worn  by  young  women  in  his  laboratory  classes  at  more 
than  $3,000.     His  appraisement  was  probably  too  low;  but  it  is  absurd  to 
lay    the    blame    for   either    the   extravagance    or    the    poor    taste    on    the 
sororities. 


SOME   PECULIAR   REGULATIONS  467 

that  he  cannot  bear  to  see  others  spending  more  than  he  can,  or 
enjoying  companionship  to  which  he  is  not  invited,  the  case  is 
held  up  as  a  grievous  Avrong  done  to  a  sensitive  spirit,  and  the 
lavish  or  exclusive  persons  are  herated  and  wailed  over  and  regu- 
lated by  maudlin  laws.  Do  such  practices  represent  a  desirable 
"preparation  for  life"?  All  true  and  enlightened  friends  of  their 
fellow  men  will  have  one  judgment  in  this  matter;  but  I  suggest 
that  the  least  altruistic  taxpayer  may  well  spend  a  little  of  his  val- 
uable time  to  ascertain  what  sentiments  and  principles  in  such 
matters  are  inculcated  by  the  educational  institutions  he  is  helping 
to  pay  for.  The  ultimate  clash  out  of  which  industrial  and  social 
peace  may  be  established  will  not  be  between  the  natural  allies, 
capital  and  labor;  it  will  come  between  the  upholders  of  (co-oper- 
ative) individualism  and  the  exploiters  and  parasites  of  col- 
lectivism. 

Consider  the  foundation  of  Eule  3  on  a  slightly  lower  average 
for  the  grades  given  to  fraternity  as  compared  with  non-fraternity 
men.  Several  explanations*  besides  lower  scholarship  might  be 
offered;  but  assuming  the  official  interpretation,  is  the  law  justi- 
fiable? Five  courses  in  this  university  is  the  regular  load;  a 
student  must  get  special  permission  to  carry  six.  Yet  if  a  fra- 
ternity man  seems**  to  be  failing  in  two  of  his  five  courses,  he 


*E.  g. :  Some  instructors  give  "pass"  marks  to  a  student  who,  they 
say,  is  "doing  his  best,"  for  actual  results  inferior  to  those  of  another 
student,  not  passed,  who  "could  do  better  if  he  would  try."  They  do  not 
conceal  this  practice;  on  the  contrary  they  advocate  it,  and,  at  their  own 
initiative,  expatiate  to  wronged  students  about  this  principle  of  theirs. 
In  their  minds,  the  means  are  somehow  justified  by  the  end;  but  the  fact 
remains  that  they  bear  false  witness  (both  ways)  and  add  the  specific 
transgressions  of  the  unfair  umpire  and  the  unjust  judge.  No  sophistry 
can  justify  this  conduct  to  a  candid  youth;  and  little  do  such  college 
teachers  imagine  the  moral  repulsion  they  excite,  or  through  what  depth 
of  disdain  brave  young  men  stoop  to  give  them  outward  respect. 

**The  eviction  is  ordered  at  the  end  of  a  term  and  even  at  mid-term. 
There  are  three  terms  in  the  nine-months'  session ;  term  reports  are 
made  for  all  students,  and,  in  addition,  mid-term  reports  "for  students 


468  SOME    PECULIAR    REGULATIONS 

is  incontinently  cast  out  of  house  and  home  to  find  bed  and  board 
somewhere  else.  This  doubtless  violates  the  student's  rights  under 
the  law  of  the  land,  but  no  sensible  man  attempts  to  force  him- 
self on  a  college  through  the  courts;  he  submits  or  leaves. 

Consider  the  statute  (d).  In  the  first  place  it  is  absurd,  because 
the  recipient  of  the  invitation  needs  to  ask  various  questions. 
There  is  a  deeper  objection.  The  entire  set  of  regulations  puts  a 
premium  on  deception,  but  this  one  cannot  be  treated  in  good 
faith.  It  must  corrupt  every  corruptible  fraternity  group.  It  is 
practically  impossible  to  avoid  the  forbidden  "intimation,"  if  there 
is  to  be  no  communication  after  the  invitation;  because,  to  tell 
a  man  previously  the  amount  of  chapter  dues,  what  room  a  new 
member  might  take,  and  other  necessary  information  intimates  a 
coming  invitation.  To  cap  the  climax,  all  these  regulations  are 
put  under  a  so-called  "honor  system."  Is  deliberate  approval  of 
this  regulation  psychologically  possible  for  a  man  who  attaches 
due  importance  to  his  own  word  and  to  truthfulness  in  other  men? 

Could  any  condition  of  the  fraternity  homes  justify  the  adopted 
regulations?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  no  breaches  of  decorum  in  them 
are  alleged  or  suggested,  even  in  the  "Against  Fraternities"  cir- 
cular. Social  prejudices  (said  to  be  "felt"  by  non-fraternity  stu- 
dents), low  scholarship,  and  "permanent  compact  minorities  in 
student  politics,"  were  the  accusations  made  in  lengthy  disquisi- 
tions. What  is  to  be  thought  of  these  laws  framed  to  meet  the 
alleged  conditions,*  supposing  the  conditions  to  be  as  stated  ? 

The  governing  board  ought  never  interfere  in  such  affairs  by 
any  legislation  of  its  own;  but  if  the  regents  of  the  university 


doing  work  below  the  passing  grade."  Thus  passing  is  a  lock-step  affair. 
Of  course,  it  is  to  be  assumed  that  there  are  some  independent  members 
of  the  faculty  who  do  not  teach  in  secondary  school  fashion  and  hence 
do  not  grade  so  frequently — disregarding  the  rules. 

*I  find  no  reference,  even  in  the  long  faculty  report,  to  earnest  denials 
presented  by  the  fraternities. 


STUDENT   SELF-GOVERNMENT  469 

involved  in  this  case  deem  that  these  measures  adopted  in  the 
name  of  the  faculty  constitute  evidence  that  the  faculty's  com- 
bined wisdom  is  not  functioning  properly,  a  duty  rests  upon  them 
to  ascertain  for  their  own  future  guidance,*  what  members  of 
the  faculty  proposed  the  laws  or  supported  them  in  debate.  If  it 
be  found  that  any  such  hold  administrative  appointments,**  the 
executive  officer  of  the  board  should  be  requested  to  give  careful 
consideration  to  nominating  other  men  for  those  positions  of 
special  influence.  The  board  should  make  appointments  only  as 
nominated  by  the  president;  but  that  officer  should  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  his  nominations.  Whenever  it  appears  to  a  board 
that  its  executive  officer  has  made  a  serious  mistake,  both  duty 
and  friendship  prompt  to  frank  interrogatories  and  discussion — 
which  should  lead  either  to  correction  of  the  error  or  to  justifi- 
cation of  what  seemed  an  error.  In  this  particular  case,  I  believe 
the  course  here  recommended  would  incidentally  remedy  many 
other  things  that  may  have  been  causing  anxiety. 

Student  Self-Government. 

Persons  not  in  touch  with  the  most  recent  doings  in  many 
state  universities  can  hardly  realize  what  student  self -government 
has  come  to  mean  in  some  "progressive"  quarters.  Years  ago, 
when  no  fuss  was  made  about  it,  or  set  term  used  for  it,  it  meant 
that  the  student  governed  his  own  conduct  without  a  handbook 
of  rules  and  regulations — misconduct  being  adjudged  and  penal- 
ties being  imposed  by  the  faculty***  or  its  officers  on  general  prin- 
ciples of  morality  and  decorum. 


*Cf.  pp.  135-136. 

**Including  faculty  committees  which,  in  this  case,  are  appointed  by 
the  president,  as  well  as  the  appointments  made  by  the  board  on  nomina- 
tion by  its  executive  officer.  Cf.  pp.  133;  226;  etc. 

***In  a  few  exceptional  institutions  the  student  body  had  instinctively 
assumed  charge  of  one  point  of  honor  and  quietly  imposed  one  dread 


470  STUDENT    GOVERNMENT 

Then  came  agitations — in  no  case,  I  believe,  originated  sponta- 
neously by  students — described  in  1906  by  Dean  Bessey: 

"In  all  this  talk  about  the  desirability  of  having  the  students  take 
some  part  in  the  government  of  the  college,  ...  we  may  as  well 
understand  first  as  last  that  there  are  a  great  many  places  in  even  the 
most  democratic  society  where  'representation'  is  impracticable,  and  where 
the  'governed'  are  not  competent  to  have  any  voice  in  the  government,  or 
even  if  competent,  do  not  want  to  be  bothered  about  the  matter.  We 
cannot  run  railway  trains  or  steamships  by  a  committee  of  the  passen- 
gers. When  I  go  aboard  of  either,  I  am  too  busy  with  my  own  affairs 
to  be  willing  to  'work  my  way'  by  taking  part  in  the  management.  So 
too  it  is  with  the  college  boy.  He  expects  us  to  manage  things,  himself 
included,  and  he  rarely  has  time  to  turn  to  in  order  to  take  part  in  what 
is  manifestly  our  own  business.  .  .  . 

"In  my  opinion,  based  upon  fifteen  years  of  experience  with  it,  'student 
government,'  so-called,  is  impracticable  in  so  far  as  permanent  results 
are  concerned.  I  took  prominent  part  in  a  prolonged  attempt  to  secure 
a  condition  in  which  the  students  could  and  would  govern  themselves. 
It  was  fairly  successful  only  as  long  as  the  faculty  watched  every  step 
taken  by  the  student  officers.  When  we  relaxed  our  watchfulness  the 
'government'  fell  into  innocuous  desuetude." 

But  some  deans  of  a  different  sort  from  Dean  Bessey — men 
who,  I  fear,  can  learn  as  little  from  their  own  experience  as  they 
have  learned  from  the  experience  of  others — have  seized  upon 
"Student  Self-Government"  for  a  hobby  and  are  galvanizing  it 
into  fantastic  tricks  which  may  be  making  angels  weep  and  will 
certainly  cause  terrestrial  groans  to  be  uttered  before  long. 

Several  state  universities  have  been  precipitated  to  almost  in- 
credible extremes;  yet  some  of  their  representatives  are  so  lauding 
their  progressive  systems,  that  others  seem  about  to  follow  suit. 
To  describe  an  extreme  case :  A  dean  got  his  invention  '"'con- 
sidered" and  approved  by  a  mass  meeting  of  students,  and  a  Con- 


penalty  for  any  breach  thereof.     See  the  following  section  on  "The  Honor 
System." 


STUDENT    GOVERNMENT  -171 

stitution,  theoretically  desired  and  adopted  by  the  student  body, 
was  ratified  by  the  general  faculty  The  catalog  of  the  univer- 
sity states  that  the  government  is  of  "tripartite  form,  the  president 
of  the  Students'  Association  (i.  e.,  all  students)  being  the  execu- 
tive, the  Students'  Assembly  being  the  legislative  branch,  and  the 
Students'  Council  being  the  judicial  branch";  but,  as  I  read  a 
copy  of  the  Constitution  of  the  same  date  (1913),  the  quondam 
authorities  of  the  university  must  execute  the  laws  of  the  new 
legislative  power  and  also  be  sheriff  for  the  new  court.  In  the 
Constitution  the  said  president  is  strictly  a  tripartite  presider,  not 
an  executive  at  all,  his  duties  being  to  preside  over  mass  meetings, 
over  meetings  of  the  legislature,  and  over  the  court.  The  "As- 
sembly," or  legislature,  consists  of  fifteen  students  elected  by  dif- 
ferent divisions  and  classes,  and  the  president  and  vice  president 
of  the  student  body.  The  legislature's  power  is  unlimited*  (sub- 
ject to  the  Constitution),  saving  only  that  the  president  of  the 
university  has  a  veto  power.  The  faculty  is  out  of  it — literally 
obliterated.  The  court  consists  of  eighteenf  members — one  more 
than  the  legislature.  Something  in  the  twenty-six  pages  of  the 
Constitution  may  have  been  overlooked,  but  I  find  no  appellate 
jurisdiction.  The  judicial  branch  is  made  absolute — on  paper. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  according  to  my  latest  information  a  con- 
demned student  recently  appealed  to  the  faculty.  It  could  do 
nothing  constitutionally,  but  its  original  jurisdiction  being  not 
expressly  resigned  to  the  student  body,  the  Constitution  might  be 
interpreted  as  having  set  up  a  concurrent  conflicting  jurisdiction. 


*"Shall  have  power  to  legislate  in  all  matters  of  general  student  in- 
terest. .  .  .  Any  measure  passed  shall  become  a  law  and  binding  on 
the  Student  Body  ten  days  from  the  dat^  of  its  presentation  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  University,  provided  the  same  is  not  vetoed  during  this  period 
by  the  President  of  the  University." — Constitution. 

tSo  in  1913  Constitution;  in  an  article  published  in  March,  1914, 
twenty  members  of  this  judicial  branch  of  the  government  are  mentioned. 
Probably  some  element  was  found  to  be  "unrepresented." 


472  STUDENT   GOVERNMENT 

Previously,  authority  to  impose  penalties  for  breaches  of  disci- 
pline, short  of  expulsion,  had  been  delegated  to  the  president,  with 
provision  that  he  might  ask  a  faculty  committee  to  share  his  re- 
sponsibility. The  president  and  such  a  committee  retried  the 
case.  The  faculty  "declined  to  take  jurisdiction."  The  second 
judgment,  I  understand,  modified  the  first,  but  not  enough  to 
suit  the  plaintiff.  The  student  appealed  to  the  Board  of  Regents. 
The  Regents  tried  the  case  a  third  time  and  rendered  a  mate- 
rially different  decision.  The  intentions  of  all  were  good,  and 
we  may  assume  that  each  action  was  justified  by  its  premises; 
but  is  this  a  good  system  to  set  up?  How  can  it  be  doubted  that 
this  instance  is  but  a  slight  foretaste  of  things  to  come. 

In  the  extreme  cases,  action  too  definite  and  binding  has  been 
taken  by  the  responsible  authorities,  and  an  element  in  the  student 
bodies  has  suddenly  taken  too  kindly  to  politics,*  for  this  matter  to 


*Some  time  ago  I  happened  to  be  in  a  college  town  while  a  campaign 
for  the  offices  of  the  student  government  was  under  way.  Passing  through 
the  University's  halls  I  walked  on — sometimes  through — a  litter  of  po- 
litical "dodgers"  of  various  colors  and  sizes  (from  several  square  feet  to 
a  few  square  inches)  which  were  strewn  thick  on  all  the  floor  space  I 
saw.  Outside,  the  walks  were  scattered  over  with  the  same  documents, 
which  were  also  posted  on  trees  and  other  objects  to  which  they  could 
be  attached.  Never  have  I  seen  a  more  revolting  spectacle  of  physical 
disorder,  but  the  moral  purport  of  the  ugly  broadsides  was  a  thing  far 
worse.  Some  of  them  were  so  aspersive  that,  a  few  years  ago  in  the 
same  university,  their  authors  would  have  been  under  the  necessity  of 
fighting.  The  graduates  from  this  collegiate  practice  in  "citizenship"  will 
evidently  need  very  little  more  skin-thickening  to  go  comfortably  through 
the  primary  elections  for  the  future  nominations  about  which  they  may 
now  be  defiling  themselves  in  dreams.  Constitutional  amendments,  as  well 
as  persons,  were  under  fire:  I  pulled  off  a  tree  a  14x10  placard  protest- 
ing against  an  amendment  to  reduce  the  numerical  power  of  freshmen 
(who  made  more  than  half  the  student  body)  in  the  government.  The 
freshmen — bless  their  hearts — were  doubtless  quite  as  innocent  as  are  the 
people,  of  many  demands  made  in  their  name  in  "practical  politics."  The 
faculty  was  given  a  foretaste  of  things  to  come  (data  fata  secutus)  : 
"The  faculty  is  in  favor  of  it  because  it  will  be  easier  for  it  to  control 
the  Council."  The  self-obliterating  faculty  had  doubtless  formed  no  such 
design, — and  if,  some  time,  they  are  startled  into  attempting  by  such 


STUDENT   GOVERNMENT  473 

subside  into  the  "innocuous  desuetude"  of  the  experiments  referred 
to  by  Dean  Bessey.  It  must  be  stopped  as  it  was  made — at  one 
stroke,  or  it  will  run  a  troubled  and  troublesome  course. 

In  the  extreme  cases  'sure-enough'  legislatures  are  grinding  out 
statutes  intended  really  to  control  the  daily  walk  and  conversation 
of  thousands  of  persons.  These  statutes  will  accumulate;  because 
the  avowed  idea  of  practice  for  the  political  activities  of  the  citizen 
at  large,  will  suggest  to  most  candidates  platforms  of  proposed 
laws.  As  the  statutes  accumulate  will  not  the  "judicial  branch" 
be  kept  rather  busy?  Will  the  litigious  spirit  thus  engendered, 
or  individual  recalcitration,  always  stop  with  such  appeals  as  have 
been  made  to  boards  of  regents?  Will  not  those  boards,  before 
long,  be  hailed  into  the  courts  of  the  land  ?  This  is  one  of  the 
things  to  be  expected. 

It  may  be  objected  that  I  have  presented  only  the  negative  side. 
An  innovation  ought  to  have  strong  affirmative  support.  What  is 
the  avowed  purpose?  In  expositions  of  the  schemes,  intended  to 
commend  them  for  imitation,  I  find  only  (besides  pointless  harp- 
ing on  the  word  "democracy")  that  training  for  citizenship  is 
afforded.  Some  advocates  estimate  that  the  practice  in  law- 
making  will  be  more  valuable  than  any  course  of  professorial  in- 
struction. Is  practice  in  making  laws  the  proper  preparation  for 
law-making?  A  physician  is  prepared  for  prescription-writing  not 
by  writing  prescriptions  but  by  studying  physiology,  pathology, 
and  materia  medico, ;  and  if  his  preparatory  studies  include  prac- 
tice in  writing  prescriptions  they  are  written  for  criticism  not  for 
patients.  To  preserve  health  and  cure  disease,  it  is  as  important 


devices  to  lay  the  spirit  they  have  raised,  it  will  be  in  vain.  This  out- 
cry was  just  a  little  vote-getter.  That  is  the  way  in  which  settlement 
by  voting  is  reached  in  matters  that  ought  not  to  be  voted  on  at  all.  The 
youngsters  knew  what  they  were  about.  Such  smartness  is  open  to  every- 
one who  is  willing  to  stoop  to  it;  the  "practice"  about  which  the  advo- 
cates of  the  system  prate  is  quite  superfluous. 


474  STUDENT   GOVERNMENT 

to  know  when  not  to  write  a  prescription  for  any  medicine  at  all, 
as  to  know  the  right  medicine  when  a  prescription  is  needed.  The 
same  is  true  of  legislation.  Laws  ought  not  to  be  made  'for  exer- 
cise.' Yet  precisely  that  (making  effective  laws  for  exercise)  is 
what  this  claim  amounts  to.  Is  this  aping  of  the  most  dangerous 
vice  of  democracy  the  "training  for  democratic  citizenship"  that  a 
university  ought  to  give? 

If  it  be  answered  that  the  students  wished  to  prescribe  and  take 
their  own  medicine,  I  should  say  that  it  would  make  no  difference 
if  it  were  true;  but  that  it  is  not  true.  Think  of  a  mass  meeting 
of  students  (half  of  them  youths  and  maids  freshly  come  to  col- 
lege) listening  to  speeches  by  the  inventive  dean  and  by  some 
members  of  the  faculty  whose  work  'tends  to  the  administrative 
side'  and  by  ambitious  students,* — and  then  voting  on  a  great 
proposal  about  "self-government."  What  sort  of  basis  for  univer- 
sity organization  is  that?  And  what  of  the  minority  who  did 
not  vote  at  all  or  voted  no?  Did  this  minority  include  the  few 
who  can  keep  their  head  in  such  a  sharp  trial  of  character  and 
intelligence?  It  is  their  right  to  say — as  I  know  some  of  them 
feel:  "We  came  here  to  submit  ourselves  to  be  governed  by  the 
constituted  authorities;  they  ought  to  know  how;  we  do  not  think 
many  laws  are  needed;  we  ourselves  are  unwilling  to  assume  au- 
thority over  the  general  conduct  of  our  fellows;  we  are  willing 
to  take  charge  of  a  point  of  honor,  such  as  cheating,  and  relieve 
authority  of  any  need  to  make  a  law  on  the  subject,  but  we  see 
only  harm  to  all,  if  students  who  seek  or  would  accept  such  office 
are  chosen  to  govern  us  in  all  our  doings;  we  believe  it  is  bad  for 
us  and  worse  for  them,  and  we  protest  against  it." 

The  claim  to  the  most  advanced  position  in  student  self-govern- 
ment, made  by  the  inventors  of  the  system  we  have  described,  was 


*It  would  be  easy  for  any  member  of  the  faculty  to  find  out  whether 
or  not  everyone  of  those  students  afterwards  ran  for  office.  I  did  not 
care  myself  to  keek  into  such  details. 


STUDENT   GOVERNMENT  475 

doubtless  true  in  respect  to  faculty  action  and  Constitutions;  but 
there  are  now  rivals  for  that  bad  eminence,  and  in  reaction  from 
the  student  side  it  has  been  surpassed.  Current  reports  of  the 
strike  of  the  Wisconsin  Student  Workers'  Union  make  that  phe- 
nomenon the  most  enterprising  thing  yet  heard  of  in  the  way  of 
government  by  students — the  strikers  seeking  in  this  case*  to 
control,  not  their  fellow  students  but  the  business  management 
of  the  university.  A  new  central  kitchen  afforded  conveniences 
which  made  some  of  the  waiters  and  kitchen  helpers  superfluous. 
Twenty  out  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  such  student  employes 
were  given  notice  that  after  a  few  weeks  there  would  be  no  more 
work  for  them.  The  twenty  persons  concerned  received  the  an- 
nouncement in  good  spirit,  it  being  plain  that  their  services  were 
no  longer  needed.  Other  students,  not  employed  by  the  univer- 
sity but  interested  in  organized  agitation,  called  mass  meetings, 
and  "brought  about  a  condition  of  hysteria  which  affected  a  large 
proportion  of  the  student  employes."  A  union  was  organized, 
alleged  to  have  more  than  four  hundred  members.  The  union 
demanded  that  all  present  and  future  business  of  the  commons 
be  submitted  to  it  for  approval,  with  provision  for  a  board  of  arbi- 
tration satisfactory  to  the  union.  It  was  declared  that  if  their 
demands  were  not  acceded  to  there  would  be  walkouts  by  boarders 


*The  system  for  the  regular  government  of  students  at  the  University 
of  Wisconsin  is  not  much  behind  the  system  described.  Indeed,  recent 
acts  of  the  responsible  authorities  appear  to  have  closed  up  any  gap.  By 
latest  report,  the  Wisconsin  student  is  under  a  student  legislative  body 
which  undertakes  to  direct  and  control  him  in  nearly  all  his  doings: 
"This  elective  body  not  only  assumes  jurisdiction  over  the  student  as  an 
individual,  but,  like  an  interstate  commerce  commission,  it  regulates  the 
activities  of  various  student  organizations,  particularly  those  alleged  to 
have  aristocratic  tendencies.  It  fixes  penalties  for  the  infraction  of  stu- 
dent laws,  authorizes  arrests,  and  sees  that  culprits  are  brought  before 
the  Student  Court,  where  they  are  tried  and  sentenced.  .  .  .  The 
faculty  has  already  recognized  its  jurisdiction.  The  Regents  have  agreed 
not  to  alter  or  abridge  the  control  of  Student  Self-Government,  except 
through  process  of  conference." 


476  RATIONAL    STUDENT   GOVERNMENT 

and  sympathetic  strikes  in  the  town  which  would  close  every 
dining  room  in  Madison.  "Hearings  were  held  before  the  regents, 
but  all  efforts  to  change  the  attitude  of  the  leaders  were  futile." 
When  compelled  to  act,  the  legitimate  authority  acted  vigorously. 
A  reliable  account  in  a  quarterly  review  reports: 

"The  administration  ordered  the  doors  of  the  dining  halls  closed,  locked, 
and  guarded.  .  .  .  The  debarred  student  waiters,  boarders,  and  guests 
gathered  on  the  campus  dumbfounded  that  a  public  institution  should 
close  its  doors  to  the  populace.  All  the  stage  machinery  that  accompanies 
a  real  strike  and  lockout  was  brought  into  requisition — circulars  were 
issued  appealing  for  the  sympathy  of  the  public,  and  implying  that  poor 
students  had  been  discharged  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  belonged 
to  the  Union,  and  stating  that  girls  working  their  way  through  college 
had  been  dismissed  because  they  had  expressed  sympathy.  Mass  meetings 
were  called,  speakers  were  imported,  inflammatory  addresses  were  deliv- 
ered, additional  resolutions  adopted,  and  appeals  made  to  the  Federation 
of  Labor,  to  the  State  Industrial  Commission,  and  to  the  Governor. 
But  in  due  time  the  members  of  the  Student  Workers'  Union  found  that 
their  services  were  not  indispensable,  that  State  institutions  do  not  in- 
variably yield  to  the  pressure  of  organized  resistance,  and  as  chastened 
individuals  they  applied  for  such  positions  as  remained  vacant,  and  went 
back  to  work." 

An  urgent  duty  rests  upon  university  men  to  consider  critically 
the  drift  into  such  troubled  waters.  The  spell  of  emotional  agi- 
tators and  the  craft  of  publicity  agents  must  be  disregarded,  and 
the  question  faced  squarely.  Rational  student  self-government  has 
nothing  to  do  with  imitating  the  legislatures  and  courts  and  com- 
missions of  a  state  government.  Let  the  faculty  enact  the  few 
statutes  required:  let  its  officers  execute  those  laws,  and  deal  with 
unexpressed  matters  according  to  their  wisdom;  and  let  the  stu- 
dents go  about  their  proper  business, — and  all  would  be  as  orderly 
and  pleasant  as  human  affairs  can  be. 

All  observers  who  wish  to  see  and  report  the  truth,  distorting 
nothing  to  suit  a  preconception,  bear  the  same  testimony,  whether 


THE   HONOR   SYSTEM  477 

they  comprehend  the  matter  or  not.  For  instance,  the  absence 
of  "tangible  machinery"  at  which  Mr.  Slosson  wonders  in  his 
observation  of  student  self-government  at  Yale  is  a  requisite  for, 
not  a  puzzling  deficit  in  the  conditions  candidly  reported,  although 
not  understood,  by  him: 

"A  stranger  who  tries  to  see  Yale  will  be  disappointed,  because  so 
much  of  it  and  the  best  of  it  is  invisible.  I  felt  on  the  campus  as  I  do 
in  the  dynamo  room  of  a  great  power  house.  I  knew  that  I  was  in  the 
presence  of  forces  obviously  powerful  but  imperceptible  to  my  senses. 
There  is  not  enough  tangible  machinery  about  Yale  to  account  for  the 
work  it  is  doing.  The  Yale  undergraduates  seem  to  train,  control,  and 
discipline  themselves,  leaving  little  for  the  official  authorities  to  do  in 
this  way.  In  fact  President  Hadley  has  explicitly  recognized  this  in  say- 
ing that,  'if  the  chairman  of  the  Yale  News  Board  is  a  man  of  the  right 
type — and  he  almost  always  is — he  is  the  most  efficient  disciplinary  officer 
of  the  university.'  " 

The  Honor  System. 

The  code,  or  spirit  by  which  students  in  some  schools  and  col- 
leges successfully  govern  themselves  in  respect  to  truth  and  fair 
dealing,  has  never  been  and  can  never  be  adopted  instantly  and 
full-fledged.  It  is  a  vital  growth,  and  flourishes  only  in  a  con- 
genial climate.  Its  seeds  are  everywhere  being  planted  by  those 
who  have  such  seed  to  plant.  If  the  sowers  be  many  and  the 
climate  favorable  (there  is  always  some  good  soil),  a  time  will 
come  when  thrifty  stalks  will  grow  thick  enough  to  choke  out  the 
tares, — and  then  the  "system"  will  flourish  if  protected  from  those 
who  try  to  engraft  on  it  alien  things,  and  if  not  overflowed  too 
deeply  by  annual  deposits  of  raw  soil.  The  simple  method  and 
secret  of  the  planting  are — "the  method,  trust;  the  secret,  exalted 
personal  virtue  reaching  down  and  lifting  up  to  its  own  plane  the 
unspoiled  lives  of  ingenuous  boys."* 

The  genesis  of  the  honor  system  at  the  University  of  Virginia 


•Words  of   Prof.  Wm.   M.   Thornton. 


478  THE    HONOR   SYSTEM 

differed  from  commonly  given  accounts  of  it.  Its  invention  is 
frequently  attributed  to  Thomas  Jefferson  and  the  impression  is 
left  that  it  has  been  in  operation  from  the  opening  of  the  uni- 
versity in  1825.  Jefferson  did  lay  the  foundation  for  it,  but  in 
this  matter  he  builded  better  than  he  knew  and  quite  differently 
from  his  prognostication.  His  architectural  plan  rendered  espion- 
age on  the  student's  privacy  impracticable;  and  the  noble  philos- 
ophy of  his  plans  for  freedom  of  teaching,  freedom  of  learning, 
and  freedom  of  private  conduct  gave  a  broad  and  sure  foundation 
for  goodly  edifices  of  every  kind.  But  his  plan  for  dealing  with 
overt  misconduct  requiring  punishment,  was  the  very  opposite  of 
the  practice  which  grew  up  in  its  stead.  In  "enactments  for  the 
Government  of  the  University,"  drawn  in  Jefferson's  own  hand 
and  enacted  by  the  Board  of  A'isitors  of  which  he  was  Eector, 
after  provision  for  expulsion,  suspension,  and  reproof  by  the  fac- 
ulty for  some  major  offenses,  it  was  provided: 

"Minor  offenses  may  be  referred  to  a  board  of  six  Censors,  to  be  named 
by  the  faculty  from  the  most  discreet  of  the  students,  whose  duty  it  shall 
be,  sitting  as  a  board,  to  inquire  into  the  facts,  propose  the  minor  pun- 
ishment which  they  think  proportioned  to  the  offense,  and  to  make  report 
thereof  to  the  Professors  for  their  approbation,  or  their  commutation  of 
the  penalty  if  it  be  beyond  the  grade  of  offense." 

This  permissive  law  was  never  put  into  effect.  After  seventeen 
years  of  various  other  experiments  and  some  turbulent  experi- 
ences, a  diametrically  opposite  procedure  emerged — in  all  its  moral 
beauty  and  power  and  well-nigh  perfect  efficiency.  Says  Professor 
Thornton  :* 

"In  the  gradual  evolution  of  Jefferson's  ideal  of  academic  government 
into  its  working  form  we  reached  a  strange  inversion  of  his  plan.  The- 
original  Enactments  proposed  to  devolve  upon  the  students  the  discipline 
of  minor  offenses  and  to  reserve  to  the  professors  the  infliction  of  major 


*In  an  address  to  the  students  of  Marion  Military  Institute  in  1904  on 
"The  Genesis  of  the  Honour  System." 


THE   HONOR   SYSTEM  479 

punishments.  Under  the  Honour  System  in  its  actual  operation,  the 
maximum  punishment  is  imposed  by  the  students  and  all  the  deadly  sins 
against  gentlemanhood  and  decency  have  been  placed  under  their  juris- 
diction. ...  To  the  faculty  on  the  other  hand  has  been  left  the  whole 
class  of  minor  sins  and  minor  punishments.  With  capital  crimes  against 
academic  society  they  have  seldom,  if  ever,  to  deal." 

He  continues: 

"If  the  history  of  the  genesis  of  the  honour  system  in  the  University 
of  Virginia  shows  anything,  it  shows  that  it  has  not  been  and  can  never 
be  the  result  of  statutory  enactment,  the  mushroom  growth  of  a  single 
night.  Neither  Virginia  nor  Princeton  nor  any  other  university  could 
'adopt'  the  honour  system.  That  lofty  reverence  for  truth,  that  just  and 
delicate  sense  of  honour,  that  noble  candor  in  all  the  relations  of  col- 
lege life,  which  are  needed  for  its  existence  come  not  with  observation. 
Such  plants  are  not  native  to  the  arid  plains  of  our  poor  human  nature. 
In  Virginia  at  least  they  were  exotics,  planted  at  first  in  a  hostile  soil 
and  an  unfriendly  clime;  watered  with  hidden  tears  and  tended  with 
sleepless  care,  until  their  roots  struck  deep  into  the  college  life  and  drew 
their  needed  food  from  strata  of  the  human  heart  still  unpoisoned  by 
evil  custom  and  unpolluted  by  evil  habit.  Xor  can  these  precious  growths 
be  left  to  bear  unshielded  the  fiery  blasts  of  temptation,  the  frosts  of  in- 
difference, the  contagion  of  evil  custom  in  athletics  or  other  activities  of 
college  life,  the  polluting  breath  of  base  ideals  or  ignoble  aims.  We  who 
have  inherited  the  treasure  are  responsible  for  its  care." 

For  those  who  do  not  understand  what  the  genuine  honor  system 
is,  as  it  exists  in  the  University  of  Virginia  and  many  other  schools 
and  colleges,  the  following  testimony  of  competent  witnesses  is 
offered. 

From  an  address  by  William  Minor  Lile,  dean  of  the  law  faculty 
of  the  University  of  Virginia,  before  the  Association  of  American 
Law  Schools  in  1910: 

"Those  of  us,  born,  as  it  were,  into  the  honor  system,  who  have  known 
no  other,  and  who  have  lived  with  it  and  under  it,  have  difficulty  in 
realizing  that  there  exists  among  intelligent  educators  skepticism  as  to 
its  genuineness  and  efficiency.  But  I  am  assured  that  such  skepticism 


480  THE   HONOR  SYSTEM 

does  prevail  among  the  members  of  your  association.  .  .  .  Confusion 
has  resulted  from  ignorance  of  what  the  system  really  is.  There  has 
come  to  my  observation  no  objection  or  criticism  that  did  not  originate 
in  a  colossal  and  appalling  ignorance  of  the  system  itself.  .  .  . 

"For  some  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  University,  honesty  in 
the  written  examinations  was  sought  to  be  secured  by  the  surveillance 
of  an  examining  committee.  The  result  was  doubtless  unsatisfactory.  In 
1842  .  .  .  the  faculty  adopted  the  following  resolution:  'In  all  writ- 
ten examinations  for  distinction  and  other  honors  of  the  University,  each 
candidate  shall  attach  to  the  written  answers  presented  by  him  a  certifi- 
cate in  the  following  words:  I,  A.  B..  do  hereby  certify  on,  honor  that  I 
have  derived  no  assistance  during  the  time  of  this  examination  from  any 
source  whatever,  whether  oral  or  written  or  in  print,  in  giving  the  above 
answers.'  .  .  .  The  pledge  was  amended  so  as  to  preclude  the  giving 
as  well  as  the  receiving  of  assistance,  and  in  this  amended  form  it  has 
been  retained  to  the  present  day.  .  .  .  All  candidates  prepare  their 
examinations  in  the  same  room,  and  during  the  same  hours.  In  this 
room  there  are  no  monitors,  student  committees,  nor  other  detective 
machinery.  The  professor  in  charge  considers  himself  on  duty  so  long  as 
the  examination  is  in  progress,  but  his  function  is  rather  as  chairman 
of  the  assembly.  He  is  in  and  out  of  the  room  at  irregular  intervals,  as 
suits  his  convenience.  His  presence  from  time  to  time  is  not  only  a 
necessary  part  of  the  proceeding,  but  it  testifies  his  interest  in  the  occa- 
sion and  lends  it  added  dignity.  His  presence  serves  the  further  purpose 
of  clearing  up  those  obscurities  that  will  creep  into  his  questions,  how- 
ever carefully  set.  But  neither  in  theory  nor  in  practice  does  he  play 
the  role  of  detective.  Such  a  role  would  in  itself  be  a  flagrant  violation 
of  the  system,  and  would  be  resented  by  the  student  body  with  indignant 
protest.  As  the  professor  is  at  liberty  to  leave  the  room  at  pleasure,  so 
the  students  freely  exercise  the  same  privilege.  But,  since  every  student 
appreciates  the  delicacy  of  the  situation,  he  is  careful  not  to  incur  the 
risk  of  criticism  by  going  unaccompanied  to  his  room,  or  absenting  him- 
self for  any  considerable  period  from  the  observation  of  his  fellows. 

"Originally,  the  system  dealt  only  with  breaches  of  the  pledge  appended 
to  the  written  examination.  In  course  of  time,  and  by  evolution  of  stu- 
dent public  opinion,  its  scope  has  widened,  until  at  the  present  time  it 
embraces  any  offense  seriously  involving  the  student's  honor.  Its  latest 
conquest  has  been  in  the  field  of  athletic  sport — 'condemning  as  it  does, 


HONOR   SYSTEM  481 

participation    in   athletic   contests  when   the  player   is   conscious   of  dis- 
qualification under  the  rules  of  amateur  sportsmanship.     .     .     . 

"The  student  makes  no  pledge  in  advance.  His  implied  obligation  does 
not  include  obedience  to  University  ordinances,  onr  to  faculty  regulations. 
All  of  these  he  may  violate  without  infraction  of  the  honor  system,  pro- 
vided his  offense  does  not  involve  a  lie  or  a  cheat,  nor  otherwise  a  breach 
of  faith.  .  .  . 

"From  the  moment  of  his  matriculation,  every  student  is  presumed,  by 
the  faculty,  and  by  his  fellows,  to  be  a  man  of  honor  and  worthy  of 
their  trust.  If  not  already  a  disciple  of  the  system — as,  from  circum- 
stances to  be  mentioned  presently,  -  many  freshmen  are — he  learns  within 
a  few  days  that  he  has  become  a  member  of  a  miniature,  self-governing 
community,  with  but  one  rule  of  conduct,  and  that  is,  the  exercise  of 
absolute  candor  and  honesty  in  all  of  his  relations  with  the  body  politic 
and  its  members.  .  .  .  Our  raw  freshman  early  learns  not  only  the 
nature  of  his  obligations  under  the  system,  but  its  penalties.  .  .  . 
Conviction  carries  with  it  immediate  expulsion  from  the  University  by 
the  student  body,  and  a  disgrace  that  follows  the  delinquent  for  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.  ...  If  the  penalty  seems  severe,  we  must  not  for- 
get the  lie  and  the  breach  of  faith  that  accompany  the  offense.  The  mere 
act  of  cheating  is  merged  in  the  graver  offenses  of  falsehood  and  betrayal 
of  trust.  The  first  may,  conceivably,  be  committed  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment — but  signature  to  the  pledge  afterwards,  makes  the  act  a  delib- 
erate falsehood.  .  .  . 

"The  fundamental  concept  of  the  system  is,  that  it  is  a  student  code, 
interpreted  and  administered  exclusively  by  the  student  body.  To  borrow 
the  language  of  the  University  catalogue,  'it  imposes  no  burden  on  the 
faculty.  Experience  has  shown  that  the  students  themselves  are  its  stern- 
est guardians  and  executors.'  .  .  .  From  the  inception  of  the  system, 
in  1842,  to  the  present  time,  there  is  no  trace,  either  on  the  faculty 
records  or  in  the  memory  of  its  oldest  member,  of  faculty  action  against 
a  student  for  a  violation  of  the  honor  system. 

"Under  the  system  as  it  prevails  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  any 
student  who  observes  another  cheating  on  examination,  or  otherwise  vio- 
lating the  code  of  honor,  is  under  a  moral  obligation  to  his  fello\o»  to 
report  the  circumstance  promptly  to  such  members  of  his  class  as  he 
a  secret  investigation  of  the  circumstances.  If  this  inquisition  seems 
to  develop  a  prima  facie  case,  the  committee  calls  upon  the  suspected 


482  HONOR  SYSTEM 

student  for  an  explanation.  Should  this  explanation  prove  satisfactory, 
there  is  an  end  of  the  case.  Should  the  explanation  be  not  satisfactory, 
the  accused  is  given  the  choice  of  quietly  withdrawing,  or  of  standing  a 
trial  before  the  honor  committee.  This  committee  is  made  up  of  the 
presidents  of  the  five  departments  of  the  University,  and  the  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  one  of  which  the  accused  is  a  member.  The  trial  may  be  in 
private  or  in  public,  as  the  accused  may  elect.  If  he  elect  a  public 
trial,  the  members  of  his  class,  together  with  such  friends  as  the  ac- 
cused may  desire,  are  admitted,  but  no  others.  Either  side  may  be  rep- 
resented by  student  counsel.  The  proceedings  are  summary,  and  from  the 
decision  of  this  committee  there  is  no  appeal.  If  the  accused  be  in  fact 
guilty,  as  has  proved  to  be  the  case  in,  I  believe,  ninety  per  cent  of  the 
accusations  made — the  filing  of  the  charges  usually  insures  his  departure 
on  the  next  train,  without  awaiting  a  trial,  or  even  a  bill  of  particulars. 
In  rare  instances  the  culprit  has  shown  a  bold  front,  and  made  defense. 
His  conviction  is  uniformly  followed  by  an  order  of  immediate  expulsion 
by  the  Honor  Committee.  There  are  no  minor  penalties.  No  case  is 
remembered  where  the  student  remained  in  the  University  after  convic- 
tion. Refusal  promptly  to  obey  the  order  of  expulsion  is  practically  an 
inconceivable  situation  .  .  . 

"If  the  impression  has  been  created  on  your  minds  that  these  accusa- 
tions are  of  frequent  occurrence,  let  me  repeat  that,  as  student  and 
teacher,  I  have  been  in  residence  at  the  University,  and  in  intimate  con- 
tact with  its  student  life,  for  nineteen  years.  During  that  time,  I  have 
known  of  less  than  a  score  of  accusations  made  from  all  departments  of 
the  University.  During  a  connection  of  seventeen  years  with  the  Law 
School,  as  teacher,  and  for  the  greater  portion  of  that  time  as  Dean  of 
the  department — within  which  period  the  total  attendance  of  law  stu- 
dents has  exceeded  two  thousand — there  have  come  to  my  knowledge  less 
than  a  half  dozen  instances  of  a  charge  of  suspicious  conduct  on  the  part 
of  a  law  student.  Probably  no  case  escaped  by  observation,  since  the 
custom  of  the  Honor  Committee  is  to  advise  with  the  Dean,  as  amicus 
curiae,  in  all  such  cases  arising  in  his  department.  It  may  be  added, 
that  in  one  of  these  cases  only,  did  the  accused  demand  a  trial,  and  that 
the  strong  prima,  facie  case  made  against  him  was  satisfactorily  proved 
to  have  been  merely  a  thoughtless  imprudence,  and  his  acquittal  resulted. 
In  the  other  three  or  four  cases,  the  accused  took  leg  bail,  and  stood  not 
upon  the  order  of  their  going.  .  .  . 

"The  continuity  and  vigor  of  the  system  have  been  fostered  by  the  cir- 


HONOR   SYSTEM  483 

cumstance  that,  through  the  influence  of  graduates  sent  out  as  teachers, 
it  has  been  transplanted  into  many  of  the  colleges  and  preparatory  schools 
from  which  come  most  of  our  students.  Hence,  a  majority  of  the  fresh- 
men come  to  us  already  familiar  with  the  system  and  in  sympathy  with 
it.  These,  with  the  returned  members  of  the  higher  classes,  each  one  of 
whom  is  a  loyal  disciple  of  the  system,  make  it  possible  to  begin  each 
session  with  but  a  comparatively  small  number  of  raw  recruits  to  be 
broken  in.  Nor,  as  already  stated,  are  these  .long  in  learning  the  priv- 
ileges and  penalties  of  the  system,  for  the  atmosphere  is  vibrant  with  it. 
It  appeals  to  the  best  there  is  in  them  soon  converts  the  young  barbarians 
into  earnest,  self-respecting  disciples. 

"The  effects  of  the  honor  system  on  the  University  life  have  already, 
in  part,  been  indicated.  Not  only  has  the  problem  of  securing  honesty  in 
the  examinations  been  solved,  but,  incidentally,  many  other  problems  of 
student  government.  The  spirit  of  truth  and  honor  fostered  in  the  ex- 
amination room  has  gradually  pervaded  the  entire  life  of  the  institution. 
It  has  awakened  the  conscience  of  the  student  body,  and  developed  a  pub- 
lic opinion  that  exercises  a  wholesome  and  potent  influence  on  student 
thought,  manners,  and  deportment.  And,  best  of  all,  the  spirit  of  the 
system  does  not  die  with  college  days,  but  follows  the  graduate  into  the 
greater  world  outside. 

"That  the  honor  system,  as  it  exists  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  is 
a  genuine  and  a  practical  thing,  and  that  it  has  wrought  the  results  that 
I  have  endeavored  to  present  to  you,  and  more,  is  not,  and  has  not  been 
within  the  past  half  century,  a  debatable  question  among  members  of  the 
faculty,  nor  among  the  undergraduates,  nor  the  thousands  of  graduates 
distributed  the  nation  over;  nor  among  the  informed  public  at  large. 
These  with  one  voice  bear  the  same  testimony  in  its  behalf.  It  is  no 
longer  a  theory  but  a  condition.  .  .  . 

"Objection  has  been  made  that  the  honor  system  compels  or  encour- 
ages one  student  to  report  the  delinquencies  of  his  fellows.  Such  objec- 
tion should  have  little  force  with  members  of  a  bar  association,  under 
whose  code  of  ethics  the  duty  rests  upon  every  member  to  bring  to  the 
notice  of  the  court  instances  of  unprofessional  conduct  on  the  part  of 
his  brothers  of  the  bar,  that  they  may  be  weeded  out  from  the  profession 
they  have  disgraced.  In  the  same  manner  social  clubs,  religious  bodies, 
literary  and  scientific  organizations,  financial  exchanges — indeed  all  human 
organizations  in  which  the  moral  character  of  the  individual  is  important 


484  HONOR  SYSTEM 

in  determining  his  fitness  as  a  member — protect  themselves  against  un- 
worthy associates. 

"In  the  honor  system  there  is  no  compulsion,  other  than  that  exerted 
by  one's  own  sense  of  duty.  .  .  .  Nor,  until  a  student  has  by  his 
conduct  given  cause  for  suspicion,  is  there  the  slightest  espionage  upon 
his  movements,  by  his  fellows.  The  atmosphere  is  not  one  of  distrust 
and  suspicion,  but  precisely  the  reverse.  The  system  demands  and  secures 
not  only  faculty  trust  in  the  student's  integrity,  but  the  confidence  of  his 
fellows  as  well.  .  .  . 

"I  hold  no  brief  for  the  adoption  of  the  honor  system  in  law  schools 
now  strangers  to  it.  Its  attempted  introduction  into  new  territory  to 
which  the  system  would  come  as  a  suspected  exotic,  would  doubtless  meet 
with  many  discouragements  at  the  beginning.  There  are  probably  law 
schools  where,  from  local  conditions,  the  effort  might  be  of  doubtful  ex- 
pediency. But  surely  we  are  all  on  common  ground,  in  the  conviction 
that  every  law  student  should  learn,  from  the  beginning  of  his  profes- 
sional studies,  if  no  earlier,  that,  as  an  apprentice  to  a  noble  profession, 
he  should  cultivate  and  practice  the  same  principles  of  fair  dealing  in 
his  college  relations  that  he  will  be  expected  afterwards  to  exhibit  in  his 
professional  relations.  If  we,  as  law  teachers,  are  to  deal  lightly  with 
deception  and  dishonesty  in  the  examination  room,  or  out  of  it,  and  to 
excuse  these  offenses  as  necessary  or  customary  evilsi  of  college  life,  when, 
may  I  ask,  shall  our  complaisance  cease,  and  when  shall  our  virtuous  in- 
dignation at  dishonesty  begin?  May  the  future  lawyer  cheat  his  way  into 
the  college  and  out  of  it — into  and  through  the  law  school,  repeat  the 
offense  on  his  examination  for  admission  to  the  bar,  and  then  suddenly 
develop  into  the  clean,  high  practitioner — the  honest  guardian  of  his 
clients'  interests  and  the  faithful  servitor  in  the  courts  of  his  country? 
Is  the  practice  of  the  law,  with  all  the  temptations  it  presents,  a  better 
school  for  training  one's  ethical  sense,  than  the  study  of  the  law  under 
teachers  selected  as  well  for  their  high  character  as  for  their  learning? 
These  questions  are  left  to  your  consideration. 

"If  the  evils  suggested  do  exist,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  this  refer- 
ence to  them  would  be  gratuitous  were  no  remedy  suggested.  .  .  . 
Such  is  my  faith  in  any  body  of  youth  possessing  the  courage  and  am- 
bition to  undertake  the  severe  regimen  requisite  to  a  legal  education, 
that  I  do  not  doubt  that,  left  to  their  own  devices,  they  would  them- 
selves evolve  some  such  system  as  I  have  described,  by  whatever  name 
it  might  be  called.  The  essential  conditions  would  be  the  abolition  of 


HONOR  SYSTEM  485 

all  espionage  by  the  faculty  or  its  deputies  and  the  grading  of  every 
paper  according  to  its  face  value.  .  .  .  The  new-found  liberty  might 
be  abused;  the  value  of  the  degree  might  be  temporarily  sacrificed;  but 
the  result  would  be  well  worth  the  cost.  In  a  peculiarly  hostile  environ- 
ment such  discouraging  conditions  might  continue  long  enough  to  exhaust 
the  patience  and  disappoint  the  hopes  of  the  authorities.  But  if  the 
latter  show  the  proper  courage  and  consistency — not  for  a  moment  waver- 
ing in  the  experiment — the  instinct  of  self-protection  among  the  better 
class  of  students  would  eventually  solve  the  problem.  The  better  ele- 
ment— always  in  the  ascendency — would  tire  of  the  spectacle  of  unde- 
served honors  won  by  unfair  means  and  of  degree  conferred  on  wretched 
swindlers.  .  .  .  From  the  conflict  would  be  evolved  a  system  of  law 
and  order  and  decency  enforced  by  the  students  themselves — a  system 
more  effective  than  could  be  attained  by  an  army  of  monitors. 

"In  brief,  gentlemen  of  the  Association,  the  honor  system,  or  some 
similar  system,  is  the  logical  and  imperative  outcome  of  absolute  trust 
of  the  student  body — of  regarding  college  students  as  men  and  not  chil- 
dren. .  .  .  Neither  this  system,  nor  any  similar  one,  can  survive  on 
half-hearted  trust.  Where  the  confidence  is  unreserved,  it  cannot  die.  In 
such  a  system  the  result  is  both  objective  and  subjective.  The  student 
responds  to  the  confidence  reposed,  by  keeping  faith  with  the  faculty 
and  with  his  fellows, — and  himself  learns  the  invaluable  lesson  of  using 
liberty  without  license.  On  this  principle  our  forefathers  founded  this 
great  republic.  I  present  it  to  you  as  the  true  principle  of  government 
for  the  smaller  republic  of  whose  destinies  you  are  the  guardians.  There 
can  be  no  real  virtue  where  there  is  no  opportunity  for  vice.  Remove 
freedom  of  choice  between  good  and  evil,  and  character  ceases  to  develop. 
No  morality  was  ever  created  by  legislative  ordinances,  nor  preserved  by 
police  supervision." 

From  an  address.  April,  1913,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
New  England  Association  of  Colleges  and  Preparatory  Schools 
by  W.  S.  A.  Pott,  B.  A.,  1912,  University  of  Virginia,  in  April 
1913  a  brilliant  graduate  student  there,  now  a  professor  in  St. 
John's  University,  Shanghai,  China: 

"What  security,  then,  can  we  offer  that  our  pledges  are  strictly  ob- 
served? 

"The  first  safeguard  rests  on  the  empirical  principle  that  to  trust  a 


486  HONOR   SYSTEM 

man  is  to  make  a  man  worthy  of  your  trust.  The  generally  friendly 
terms  on  which  professor  and  student  stand  at  Virginia  are  perhaps  the 
result  of  the  assumption  on  the  part  of  both,  at  the  very  outset,  that 
each  is  man  and  gentleman,  and  this  mutual  relation  of  trust  and  friend- 
ship, in  my  mind,  is  one  of  the  chief  guarantees  of  our  honor  system. 
.  .  .  I  know  that  'cribbing'  is  felt  by  some  to  be,  if  not  justifiable, 
yet  a  venial  offense  when  the  processor  or  certain  other  agents  are  pres- 
ent for  the  specific  purpose  of  espionage;  and  therefore,  the  whole  ques- 
tion is  narrowed  down  to  a  mere  contest  of  vigilance,  in  which  the  side 
that  has  the  majority  usually  wins.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  suffice  it  to 
say  that  the  honor  system  and  the  open  and  amicable  relations  between 
faculty  and  students  at  Virginia  are  two  things  so  inextricably  connected 
and  reciprocally  related,  that  it  is  impossible  really  to  discover  which  is 
cause  and  which  is  effect;  and  this  relation  prevents  any  practices  in  the 
class  room  different  from  those  employed  in  a  larger  sphere.  .  .  . 

"Our  second  safeguard  rests  in  the  fact  that  any  offender  of  the  honor 
code,  when  detected  by  another  student,  is  reported  by  that  student.  Now 
this  very  fact  that  one  student  should  report  another  is  generally  the 
storm  center  around  which  a  discussion  of  the  honor  system  is  waged. 
Some  feel  that  student-reporting  is  certainly  an  ignoble  means  for  insur- 
ing the  successful  operation  of  a  system,  however  meritorious  and  laud- 
able that  system  may  be  in  itself.  However,  all  this  dispute  seems  to  me 
to  arise  from  the  failure  to  obtain  a  correct  idea  of  what  tale-bearing 
really  is.  Tale-bearing,  or  'squealing,'  is  a  word  that  should  be  used  to 
designate  the  reporting  of  a  strictly  personal  or  man-to-man  affair. 
.  .  .  We  do  not  consider  testifying  against  a  cheat  as  tale-bearing. 
Viewed  in  its  full  aspect  and  context,  student  reporting  of  cases  of  dis- 
honesty, so  far  from  being  condemned  as  an  opprobrious  act,  is  consid- 
ered as  an  absolute  duty,  and  therefore  a  meritorious  act.  .  .  . 

"I  would  not  have  you  think  that  the  honor  system  is  such  an  un- 
elastic,  narrow,  and  stereotyped  thing  as  to  be  confined  only  to  the  class 
room.  In  athletics  it  is  prominent.  .  .  .  Since  the  eligibility  rules 
were  made,  there  has  never  been  a  case  of  an  athlete  signing  the  eligi- 
bility pledge  falsely.  To  cite  another  instance  of  the  comprehensiveness 
of  the  system,  although  it  may  sound  strange  to  you  when  I  say  it,  the 
honor  committee  takes  charge  of  any  form  of  dishonesty  in  gambling, 
whether  it  be  actual  cheating  or  the  writing  of  bogus  checks.  However 
much  the  students  may  frown  upon  gambling,  they  lead  no  active  crusade 
against  gambling  as  such,  but  only  against  dishonesty  in  gambling.  .  .  . 


HONOE   SYSTEM  487 

"Few  and  infrequent  as  honor  violations  are  with  us,  they  neverthe- 
less occur,  and  I  must  tell  you  how  we  deal  with  such  breaches.  We 
have  nothing  at  Virginia  that  corresponds  exactly  with  your  class  divi- 
sions. Our  divisions  are  only  into  departments,  such  as  the  college,  the 
department  of  graduate  studies,  and  the  departments  of  medicine,  law, 
and  engineering.  Each  department  has  its  officers,  and  the  five  presidents 
of  the  several  departments,  together  with  the  vice-president  of  the  de- 
partment of  which  the  accused  is  a  member,  constitute  the  honor  com- 
mittee. If  any  student  is  suspected  of  cheating  and  there  is  sufficient  evi- 
dence for  a  prima  facie  case,  the  accused  is  summoned  to  explain  himself. 
He  may,  or  may  not,  remain  in  college  long  enough  to  be  asked  to  ap- 
pear before  the  committee,  for  he  is  usually  warned  and  advised  by  those 
who  detected  him  to  depart  immediately  from  the  university.  But  if  he 
does  appear  and  fails  to  explain  himself,  he  is  simply  asked  to  leave,  and 
he  does  so  on  the  very  next  train.  There  is  no  case  on  record  in  which 
a  convicted  student  has  failed  to  comply  with  the  request  of  the  honor 
committee.  The  accused,  however,  on  being  asked  to  clear  himself  may 
demand  a  regular  trial,  either  public  or  private.  So  far  as  I  know,  there 
have  been  but  two  public  trials  in  Virginia,  both,  as  I  understand,  solemn 
and  heart-rending  occasions.  At  one  of  these  the  accused  was  convicted 
and  dismissed,  while  at  the  other  the  accused  was  acquitted,  being  found 
guilty  only  of  indiscretion.  But  the  verdict  of  the  jury  sitting  at  a,  pub- 
lic trial  is  obyed  as  promptly  as  the  request  of  the  honor  committee  sit- 
ting in  private.  All  this,  you  see,  is  quite  simple,  and  the  chief  thing  to 
be  noted  is  that  the  students  themselves  have  absolute  control  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  honor  system.  It  is  regarded  by  them  as  their  dear- 
est possession;  the  center  of  gravity,  so  to  speak,  is  shifted  from  the 
faculty  to  the  student  body,  which  is  entrusted  with  and  has  complete 
authority  over  what  it  considers  a  priceless  heritage. 

"It  may  be  thought  by  some  that  the  summary  punishment  that  is 
meted  out  to  any  offender  of  the 'honor  code  is  not  altogether  deserved  in 
the  case  of  those  who  fall  through  ignorance.  It  is  impossible  to  make 
any  distinctions  or  to  recognize  any  such  excuses,  for  the  honor  system 
itself  is  at  stake  as  soon  as  it  starts  to  make  exceptions.  Nevertheless, 
for  those  who  are  not  familiar  with  the  honor  system  before  they  enter, 
ample  opportunity  is  afforded  to  become  acquainted  with  the  system.  It 
is  explained  by  the  older  men  to  all  new  students  at  a  sort  of  mass  meet- 
ing on  the  first  Monday  night  after  the  opening  of  the  session.  With  this 
and  with  living  in  an  atmosphere  that  is  permeated  with  the  spirit  of 


488  HONOB  SYSTEM 

students'  honor,   any  offense  that  may  occur  is  considered  unpardonable 
and  treated  as  such.     .     .     . 

"It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  observance  of  the  honor  code  is  or 
should  be  synonymous,  or  co-extensive,  with  perfect  or  ideal  conduct.  It 
must  not  be  supposed  that  an  honor  system  is  a  panacea  or  antidote  for 
all  the  different  attacks  of  moral  illness  that  a  student  body  suffers. 
.  .  .  There  are  certain  unreasonable  extremists  among  ourselves  who 
would  like  drunkenness  to  be  considered  as  a  violation  of  the  honor  sys- 
tem, and  worthy  of  the  capital  punishment  of  expulsion  in  disgrace  and 
dishonor.  But  to  use  a  homely  simile,  just  as  rubber  stretched  too  much 
loses  its  quality  of  elasticity,  so  I  am  sure  that  such  a  radical  and  far- 
fetched conception  of  the  just  limits  of  the  honor  code  would  be  destined 
to  work  disaster.  Our  system  is  as  elastic  as  such  a  system  could  be, 
and  any  attempt  to  render  it  more  so  would  be  wrong,  unwise,  and  a 
total  failure.  Of  such  an  offense  as  drunkenness  the  faculty  assumes  con- 
trol, and  if  it  be  the  first  time  that  the  student  is  arraigned  on  such  a 
charge,  he  is  usually  allowed  to  sign  his  name  to  a  pledge  of  total  ab- 
stinence so  long  as  he  remains  a  student  of  the  University  of  Virginia. 
But  it  is  to  be  carefully  noted  that,  should  the  pledge  be  broken,  the 
thing  ceases  to  be  a  faculty  affair  and  becomes  a  student  affair.  In 
other  words,  the  students  and  the  honor  committee  have  no  authority 
over  such  matters  as  drunken  conduct,  but  they  have  complete  authority 
in  all  matters  involving  a  breach  of  good  faith.  .  .  .  The  honor  sys- 
tem comes  into  play  only  where  there  is  a  promise  made  and  broken,  or 
some  other  form  of  dishonesty  has  appeared,  and  to  extend  its  jurisdic- 
tion any  further  would  be,  if  nothing  else,  a  misnomer.  I  do  not  wish 
to  appear  to  be  mounting  the  pulpit,  but  I  am  sure  you  can  respect  a 
man  who  has  forgotten,  momentarily,  that  'there  is  a  just  measure  in  all 
things,'  and  cannot  respect  one  who  has  lied  to  you.  .  .  .  Do  not 
think  that  I  am  condoning  drunkenness,  or  any  other  such  fault,  or  that 
the  faculty  fails  to  detect  and  deal  promptly  with  a  drunkard.  But  in 
such  cases  we  feel  that  for  a  student  to  take  any  action  other  than  that 
of  counsel  and  persuasion  is  to  infringe  on  another's  personality." 

Upon  the  point  of  severity,  Professor  Thornton  in  the  address 
already  quoted,  says: 

"Stern,  swift,  and  implacable  as  is  the  code  of  the  Honour  System,  it 
it  not  vindictive.    Its  aim  is  to  teach  virtue,  not  to  take  vengeance  for 


HONOR   SYSTEM  489 

wrong.     Its   purpose   is   preventive  not   retributive.     .     .     .     Like   a   wise 
and  tender  mother  the  University  salutes  each  alumnus,     .     .     . 
'If  you  were  born  to  honor,  show  it  now, 
If  put  upon  you,  make  the  judgment  good 
That  thought  you  worthy  of  it.'     .     .     . 

Thus  it  is  that  both  by  tender  appeal  and  by  terrible  example  the  Uni- 
versity would  teach  the  noblest  of  all  her  lessons.  Is  the  fate  of  the 
offender  tragical,  his  punishment  greater  than  he  can  bear?  Think  what 
might  be  seen,  if  we  could  uncover  the  inmost  soul  of  some  youth  who 
has  left  college  crowned  with  stolen  laurels;  of  the  horrible  scars  and 
the  festering  ulcers,  hidden  but  forever  burning;  of  the  fatal  and  pro- 
gressive degradation  of  the  spirit  that  could  wear  with  outward  pride 
that  perpetual  badge  of  inward  infamy.  So  it  is  that  we  are  led  back 
to  our  starting  point  and  ask  again  how  the  cardinal  points  of  true  man- 
liness are  to  be  conserved,  how  the  eternal  foundations  of  our  Honour 
System  and  of  all  honour  systems  must  be  established  and  guarded,  how 
Courage  and  Truthfulness  and  Loyalty  and  Magnanimity  can  best  be  im- 
planted in  the  ingenuous  youth.  .  .  .  Happy  the  school  in  which  great 
teachers  hand  down  a  noble  and  inspiring  tradition — where  'nobleness 
enkindleth  nobleness.' " 

In  another  address  delivered  in  1906  before  the  Association  of 
Preparatory  Schools  and  Colleges  in  the  Southern  States,  he  said: 

"The  very  appearance  of  watching  the  conduct  of  individual  students 
is  avoided.  It  is  felt  that  the  jealous  self-respect  of  the  student-body 
furnishes  the  best  guarantee  of  honesty.  Some  of  us  habitually  speak  in 
a  simple  but  earnest  way  to  the  first  year  classes  at  one  of  the  closing 
lectures  of  the  Fall  Term  on  the  attitude  of  the  University  towards  its 
students  in  general  and  particularly  as  to  the  examinations,  and  strive 
to  impress  upon  them  by  affectionate  admonition  the  genuineness  of  our 
trust  in  them  and  the  reciprocal  duty  resting  on  them  of  a  fastidious 
rectitude  of  action.  But  these  admonitions  seem  even  to  us  almost  need- 
less. ...  As  I  look  back  over  the  thirty  years  of  my  professorship, 
I  cannot  recall  that  any  one  of  my  students  ever  answered  me  falsely  or 
even  disingenuously  as  to  his  work  or  any  other  topic;  or  met  me  on 
any  ground  other  than  that  of  openness  and  veracity.  During  eight  years 
of  service  in  the  Chairman's  office,  when  the  discipline  of  all  students 
of  the  University  was  in  my  hands,  but  one  man  ever  told  me  a  lie,  and 


490  HONOR   SYSTEM 

he  came  back  the  next  morning  and  confessed  the  truth,  although  the 
Iruth  ensured  his  dismissal  from  the  University.  These  experiences  and 
others  like  them  force  us  to  believe  in  the  Honour  System  and  constrain 
«s  to  commend  it  to  others.  ...  Of  all  disciplines,  it  is  the  best  to 
Bnake  men.  .  .  . 

"In  discussing  it  with  Northern  teachers  I  have  found  them  often 
shocked  by  its  aspect  of  relentless  severity.  ...  To  the  students  of 
Virginia  the  case  wears  a  different  aspect.  They  condemn  and  punish 
not  the  fraud,  but  the  lie — a  lie  cold-blooded,  selfish,  and  murderous  to 
the  common  good-fame.  The  offender  signs  the  lie  deliberately.  Before 
the  fault  was  committed  he  knew  he  must  sign  the  lie.  And  he  signs  it 
not  [only]  as  an  individual,  but  as  the  member  of  a  class  whose  honor 
is  in  his  custody;  as  an  alumnus  of  a  college  whose  fair  repute  is  prosti- 
tuted to  his  selfish  ends.  .  .  . 

"It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  we  must  judge  what  seems  to  the 
careless  observer  the  student's  capricious  application  of  the  Honour  Sys- 
tem. .  .  .  We  cannot  change  their  code  if  we  would,  and  for  my  part 
I  should  doubt  the  wisdom  of  a  change.  The  student  does  not  analyze 
his  convictions.  He  feels  them,  and  by  a  true  and  just  instinct  sets  apart 
from  other  human  frailties  those  sins  which  destroy  confidence  in  the 
sinner's  inward  soundness  of  nature.  If  the  foundations  of  character  are 
destroyed  then  the  toppling  superstructire  of  reputation  must  go  like- 
wise. .  .  . 

"Not  only  with  the  faculty,  but  with  the  students  themselves,  the 
prevalent  belief  is  that  the  examinations  are  absolutely  honest.  The  fact 
that  at  rare  intervals  some  pitiful  cerature — usually  a  man  strange  to 
the  traditions  and  ideals  of  the  place — yields  to  temptation,  cheats  and 
is  detected,  adds  to  our  confidence  in  the  prevalent  rectitude.  When  every 
man  strives  to  avoid  the  very  appearance  of  evil,  the  actions  of  such  a 
student  soon  bring  him  under  suspicion.  We  believe  that  such  men  are 
almost  invariably  first  suspected,  then  detected,  then  expelled.  .  .  . 

"To  think  of  the  Honour  System  as  a  mere  artifice  for  securing  hon- 
esty in  the  examination  room,  as  an  automatic  machine  for  replacing  so 
many  keen-eyed  proctors,  is  to  miss  the  heart  of  the  whole  thing.  .  .  . 
To  be  effectual  it  must  be  conceived  as  a  vital  principle,  exalting  to 
nobler  ends  and  purer  aims  all  the  incarnations  of  the  academic  life.  It 
ought  to  affect  and  it  will  affect  the  outlook  of  the  student-mind  upon 
all  questions  of  conduct  and  of  duty.  He  is  brought  under  its  constrain- 
ing force  at  an  age  when  the  sanctions  of  religious  rearing  often  begin 


QUESTION   OF   INSTITUTING   AN    HONOR   SYSTEM  491 

to  lose  their  power;  when  the  fresh  new  world  of  freedom  and  of  joy 
allures  him  with  manifold  temptations;  when  the  nascent  powers  of 
virility  produce  in  body  and  brain  and  heart  the  riotous  springtide  of 
youth  and  hope.  Shall  we  account  it  a  small  thing  if  at  this  fateful 
moment  we  possess  a  discipline  which  helps  to  keep  him  straight  and 
clean;  which  tells  him  in  accents  he  can  but  heed  that  to  be  brave  and 
loyal  and  true  is  man's  peculiar  virtue;  which  bids  him  embrace  failure 
rather  than  stoop  to  fraud;  which  teaches  him  to  despise  an  undeserved 
success  and  condemn  an  unmerited  reward?  .  .  . 

"Nor  do  I  need  to  say  to  this  audience  that  the  University  of  Virginia 
claims  no  monopoly  of  this  system  and  asserts  no  rights  of  prior  discov- 
ery in  the  spirit  of  honour.  We  are,  I  fear,  suspected  by  some  of  a  sort 
of  arrogance  in  such  matters.  We  are  sometimes  told  of  schools  where 
the  equivalent  of  this  system  existed  from  the  day  when  the  first  founda- 
tion-stone was  laid,  and  so  told  that  we  might  well  feel  ashamed  of  our 
own.  difficulties.  It  was  not  so  in  Virginia.  ...  It  was  an  exotic, 
planted  in  faith  and  love,  tended  with  carefulness,  guarded  with  prayers, 
watered  with  tears  and  at  least  once  with  blood,  coming  slowly  to  ma- 
turity. ...  In  the  day  of  our  adversity  it  was  our  chief  support.  In 
the  time  of  our  prosperity  may  it  not  depart  from  us." 

If  a  genuine  honor  code  be  indeed  a  living  force  in  any  college, 
it  would  be  atrocious  to  surrender  it  to  the  destroying  interference 
of  men  incapable  of  understanding  it,  who  are  everywhere  and 
always  contriving  for  the  enforcement  of  fragmentary  ideas  and 
ready  to  misuse  any  instrument  on  which  they  can  lay  hands.  Or, 
if  an  honor  system  appears  to  be  arising  spontaneously  among  the 
students  of  any  college,  there  is  a  fair  prospect  of  its  winning 
its  way  among  the  young  men,  provided  every  faculty  member  who 
approves  the  principle  will  co-operate  cordially  and  will  firmly 
protect  its  incipiency  from  the  blighting  influence  of  colleagues 
who  believe  that  if  a  man  cheats  in  one  attempt  to  get  a  degree 
he  ought  to  be  permitted  to  take  it  in  a  second  attempt.  But  the 
wise  course  is  not  so  plain  if  the  issue  arises,  whether  or  not  a 
faculty  should  try  to  institute  such  a  system  by  inviting  the  stu- 
dents to  enforce  a  sacred  keeping  of  pledges  for  fair  dealing:  the 


492  TWO    QUESTIONS 

government  and  control  of  such  affairs  may  be  honorable  and  effi- 
cient, and  yet  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  faculty;  cheating  need 
not  be  in  vogue  simply  because  the  faculty  detects  and  punishes 
dishonesty,  instead  of  the  students. 

In  the  case  last  supposed  two  principal  questions  should  be 
decided  affirmatively,  or  the  matter  dropped  for  the  time  being: 

(1)  Is  the  main  part  of  the  student  body  willing  to  enforce 
honesty  in  all  tests  of  scholastic  attainments,  by  calmly  inflicting 
one  sure  penalty  for  cheating  or  stealing  of  any  sort?    This  may 
be  doubtful  in  some  enormous  modern  university,  especially  if  co- 
educational.    In  some  state  universities  more  than  a  thousand  raw 
students  of  both  sexes  pour  in  each  year,  the  number  of  freshmen 
exceeding  the  number  of  all  other  classes  combined.     Even  in  such 
a  case  my  faith  in  the  young  leads  me  to  believe  that  the  honor 
system  would  not  be  impossible,  provided  the  faculty  is  all  that 
it  might  be  if  selected  and  organized  on  right  principles;  but — 

(2)  Will  the  chief  executive  and  the  faculty  live  up  to  their 
side  of  the  responsibility,  that  is,  do  they  truly  wish  cheats  to  be 
expelled?     This  is  the  paramount  practical  question;  and  it  in- 
volves a  moral  question  on  which  no  one  should  take  his  stand 
arrogantly  or  without  justifying  the  faith  that  is  in  him. 

If  both  of  these  questions  are  answered  affirmatively,  then  I 
believe  the  honor  system  may  be  successfully  instituted.  From 
the  very  beginning  there  would  probably  be  less  dishonesty  than 
before,  and  the  efficiency  and  beneficent  influence  of  the  code 
would  grow  naturally — {/  the  system  is  kept  free  from  foolish  pro- 
cedures and  never  prostituted  to  alien  purposes.  At  the  outset 
the  great  danger  would  lie  in  the  way  of  mistaken  procedure.  For 
instance,  in  a  heterogeneous  mass  of  students,  many  of  them 
strangers  to  the  idea  of  an  inviolable  code  of  honor,  some  detected 
cheats  would  at  first  demand  "public"  trials.  If  their  crude  idea 
of  publicity  be  adopted  and  the  trials  made  grossly  public,  they 


THE   CHIEF   DANGER  493 

will  become  revolting  in  decencies  and  the  last  state  of  that  house 
shall  be  worse  than  the  first.  Or,  if  argument  is  ever  permitted 
about  anything  except  questions  of  fact,  the  system  will  break 
'down.  Never  attempt  an  honor  system  unless  you  know  what  it 
is  and  how  to  conduct  it,  especially  unless  the  one  penalty  for  its 
violation  is  settled  in  advance.  To  entertain  pleas  for  "mercy," 
or  to  allow  argument  against  the  justice  of  the  penalty  will  in- 
evitably turn  the  system  into  a  travesty.  Hysterical  uncertainties 
would  take  the  place  of  kind  but  steadfast  action.  The  court  of 
honor,  if  in  the  least  worthy  of  its  jurisdiction,  is  merciful  al- 
ready; it  does  not  need  to  hear  such  pleas;  it  does  not  sit  in 
judgment  of  the  heart  (in  the  sense  in  which  men  ought  not  to 
judge  their  brethren) ;  it  is  not  punishing  the  wrongdoer,  but 
protecting  a  vital  principle;  it  is  indeed  but  a  jury  to  determine 
a  question  of  fact  under  an  established  law — "We  will  have  no 
cheating  among  us  and  he  who  cheats  must  leave  us."  Thus  ad- 
ministered* the  honor  system  will  quickly  become  efficient;  rarely 
will  a  detected  cheater  wish  for  any  trial;  almost  uniformly  he 
will  admit  his  guilt  and  quietly  withdraw. 

But  rectitude  of  any  sort  requires  constant  vigilance.  The  chief 
danger  to  an  established  honor  system  lies  in  the  attempts  to 
apply  its  wonderful  force  to  incongruous  objects,  which  are  sure 
to  be  made  by  some  unphilosophical  minds  or  raw  characters.  If 


*"No  honor  code  can  stand  the  test  of  time  and  experience  without  a 
drastic  penalty  for  its  violation,  and  this  penalty  must  be  uniformly, 
impartially,  and  impersonally  administered.  It  is  a  distressing  and  heart- 
rending thing  that  a  man  should  be  expelled  by  his  fellows  for  cheating 
in  an  examination,  thus  violating  his  honor  pledge.  But  if  the  principle 
is  to  maintain,  this  must  be  done  and  it  should  be  made  known  publicly 
in  college  that  the  thing  has  occurred  and  the  identified  man  has  been 
dismissed.  ...  It  will  not  do  as  the  body  of  students  increases  and 
thus  becomes  more  unwieldy  to  let  down  the  bars  and  mitigate  the  punish- 
ment of  this  offense  by  suppressing  the  fact." — From  an.  address  on  "The 
Eleventh  Commandment"  by  Professor  W.  H.  Eehols  before  St.  Paul's 
Club,  published  in  the  University  of  Virginia  Alumni  Bulletin,  April, 
1914,  which  might  be  republished  very  profitably  in  every  college  journal. 


494  THE   FUNDAMENTAL   QUESTION 

a  group  sets  up  one  forbidden  thing — makes  one  commandment, 
its  decree  may  enforce  itself  almost  absolutely,  without  machinery, 
through  inviolable  custom.  But  if  a  group  attempts  to  dictate 
about  many  things,  all  of  them  will  be  more  or  less  evaded  and 
resisted  and  none  of  them  can  be  enforced  without  powerful  ma- 
chinery for  compulsion — courts  kept  busy  and  every  court  with 
its  sheriff.  It  is  worse,  also,  than  a  misnomer  to  put  miscella- 
neous regulations  under  a  would-be  code  of  honor;  and  worse  than 
folly  to  imagine  that  honorable  young  men  will  summon  to  judg- 
ment and  visit  punishment  upon  fellows  who  have,  say,  slipped 
out  of  town  without  permission,  or  broken  such  rules  as  those 
quoted  in  the  preceding  section  on  fraternities  and  dormitories. 

It  remains  to  consider  the  fundamental  question:  Is  it  right 
and  desirable  that  every  young  man  who  cheats  knowing  that  he 
will  sign  a  statement  on  honor  that  he  has  stood  the  test  fairly, 
should  be  inflexibly  excluded  from  the  college?  All  sincere  men 
do  not  judge  this  question  alike.  Objections  reduce  to  two.  One, 
at  bottom,  is  the  opinion  that  the  college  ought  to  be,  and  should 
seize  every  opportunity  to  be,  a  reformatory.  This  will  be  re- 
spectfully considered.  In  the  other  objection  it  is  said  that  the 
disgrace  of  expulsion  is  a  punishment  too  severe. 

The  true  disgrace  inheres  in  being  convicted  of  deliberate  dis- 
honesty, not  in  being  required  to  leave  the  injured  social  group. 
In  respect  to  punishment,  the  pain  (whether  thought  of  as  puni- 
tive or  expiatory)  of  remaining  where  the  shame  is  known  to  all, 
as  if  branded  on  his  brow,  would  be  greater  for  a  man  an  whom 
is  left  any  grace  at  all,  then  the  pain  to  be  suffered  out  in  the 
wider  world ;  as  for  the  pangs  of  conscience,  for  a  genuine  repent- 
ant they  would  be  the  same  in  either  sphere:  "Patria  quis  exsul 
se  quoque  fugit?"  In  the  honor  system  the  simple  purpose  is 
to  keep  the  group  clean  and  above  suspicion  in  the  matter  taken 
under  its  jurisdiction:  all  presumptuous  judgment  of  the  inner 
soul  of  the  offender,  or  about  fitting  punishment  to  individual 


THE   FUNDAMENTAL    QUESTION  495 

turpitude,  is  far  from  it ;  expulsion  from  the  group  is  not  designed 
as  a  punishment  to  fit  the  offender,  but  as  the  only  dignified  and 
safe  way  to  accomplish  the  purpose.  There  is  scarcely  need  to 
add  the  argumentum  ad  hominem,  that  those  who  advance  this 
objection  are  commonly  advocates  and  ruthless  perpetrators  of  the 
practices  described  in  the  preceding  chapter,  under  which  dutiful 
students  are  ejected  if  they  fail  to  "pass"  in  half  of  their  courses 
at  their  first  attempt.* 

The  opinion  that  the  college  ought  to  be  a  reformatory  is  the 
crucial  objection  to  the  policy  of  excluding  every  young  man  who 
cheats  and  declares  on  honor  that  he  has  stood  the  test  fairly. 
The  objection  appeals  to  a  generous  sentiment  and  sound  moral 
principle;  but  the  questions  remain  whether  this  application  of 
the  principle  is  harmonious  with  other  obligations,  and  whether 
it  is  really  expedient  for  true  reformation.  We  need,  therefore, 
to  consider  both  the  effect  on  others  and  the  effect  on  the  wrong- 
doer, if  it  be  proposed  that  students  who  cheat  and  solemnly  lie 
about  it  (in  examinations,  in  certificates  of  eligibility  for  athletic 
contests,  etc.],  or  who  deliberately  steal,  should  be  reinstated  as 
eligible  for  all  the  honors  and  certifications  conferred  by  a  uni- 
versity. The  effect  on  the  student  body,  year  after  year,  seems 
too  plain  to  need  argument:  fewer  will  yield  to  temptation  if  it 
is  understood  that  the  college  and  its  certificates  are  to  be  kept 


*I  happened  to  hear  to-day  (months  after  the  words  above  were  writ- 
ten) a  recent  graduate  of  a  state  university  depict  the  hard  fate  of  a 
friend  who  had  been  sent  home  to  a  rural  community  as  incapable  of  con- 
tinuing the  studies  he  had  essayed.  I  cannot  myself  testify  to  any  es- 
pecially heartrending  consequences,  because  in  the  cases  within  my  im- 
mediate knowledge  the  youths  were  not  at  the  mercy  of  such  a  popular 
estimation  of  their  abilities;  but  I  have  in  late  years  known  several  stu- 
dents to  be  dismissed  as  unfit  to  continue  efforts  for  a  university  edu- 
cation, because  of  failures  to  pass,  who  were  palpably  superior  both  in- 
tellectually and  morally  to  some  of  the  men  and  women  who  voted  for 
the  arbitrary  rules  which  ejected  them.  Cf.  pp.  333-;  335-;  341- ;  345-; 
348-352;  etc. 


496  CO-EDUCATION 

above  such  suspicion.  But  I  will  not  press  this  argument  un- 
duly; for  I  am  of  those  who  would  do  individual  justice  with  all 
kindness  and  proper  mercy,  leaving  distant  effects  to  the  moral 
order  and  divine  governance  of  the  universe.  Is  it  a  right  way 
to  reform  one  who  has  fallen  into  a  heinous  fault,  to  let  him  say 
he  is  sorry  and  then  go  on  without  forfeiture  of  external  oppor- 
tunity and  preferment?  Would  not  a  true  repentant  step  aside 
of  his  own  accord  to  save  the  group  from  suspicion  and  to  keep 
the  certificates  of  the  institution  above  reproach?  A  college  de- 
gree is  not  needed  for  the  reconstruction  of  an  honorable  char- 
acter and  life  Character  is  rehabilitated  only  by  repentance  and 
acts  bringing  forth  fruits  meet  therefor.  To  man  does  indeed 
belong  the  power  to  co-operate  with  divine  grace  in  undoing  his 
wrong  deeds,  thus  reversing  the  wheels  of  life  and  restoring  him- 
self to  a  lost  harmony  with  his  own  spirit  and  with  the  world  of 
just  minds.  (This  is  not  a  dogmatic  statement,  but  the  philo- 
sophical truth  that  underlies  any  germane  dogma.)  But  this 
wonderful  remedial  efficacy  of  repentance  is  missed  by  all  who 
fail  to  see,  or  who  forget,  the  balancing  consideration  which  alone 
can  restrain  from  riotous  abuses.  The  balancing  consideration  is 
to  recognize  that  repentance  is  a  work,  a  process,  and  that  its 
reconstruction  is  not  wronght  in  a  moment.  The  consequences  of 
wrong  presumptions  in  this  matter  are  familiar  to  all  who  have 
observed  the  backslidings  of  flippant,  and  the  impudent  roles  as- 
sumed by  over-sanguine  (and  sometimes  hypocritical)  repentants. 
In  the  moral  universe  repentance  does  wipe  out  wrong  and  restore 
dignity;  but  sincerity  "goes  softly"  while  the  inner  wound  of  the 
conscience  is  being  healed. 

Co-education. 

Some  years  after  the  opening  of  Cornell  University  the  question 
of  admitting  women  was  raised  by  Mr.  Sage's  proposal,  in  1872, 


ONE   DISAPPOINTMENT 


497 


to  endow  a  building  for  women.  After  much  discussion  co-educa- 
tion was  adopted.  Sage  College — not  a  separate  college  like  Bad- 
cliff  or  Barnard,  but  a  residential  hall  for  women — holds  a  secret. 
The  shrewd  old  founder  of  the  university  favored  equal  oppor- 
tunities for  women ;  but  he  had  his  doubts  about  co-education,  and 
he  wrote  them  in  a  letter  which  he  placed  in  the  cornerstone  of 
this  residential  hall  for  women.  Mr.  E.  E.  Slosson  says,  "he  did 
not  think  it  would  fail,  but  if  it  did  he  knew  why  it  would,  and 
he  wanted  posterity  to  know  that  he  knew  it."  Mr.  Slosson  ad- 
vocates so-educatiou  throughout  his  book,  but  his  comment  at  this 
point  continues: 

"I  wonder  if  any  of  the  Sage  girls  have  keen  kept  awake  by  curiosity 
to  know  what  is  in  that  letter.  I  have.  .  .  .  The  chances  are  that 
it  is  something  that  experience  has  proved  quite  illusory,  like  most  of 
the  fears  and  not  a  few  of  the  hopes  enumerated  in  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  on  Mr.  Sage's  Proposal.  .  .  .  One  of  the  benefits  which 
President  White  looked  for  .  .  .  is  so  far  from  having  been  attained 
that  I  must  give  his  own  words: 

"  'Among  the  curiosities  of  recent  civilization  perhaps  the  most  absurd 
is  the  vast  tax  laid  upon  all  nations  at  a  whim  of  a  knot  of  the  least 
respectable  women  in  the  most  debauched  capital  in  the  world.  .  .  . 
Young  men  in  vast  numbers,  especially  in  our  cities  and  large  towns, 
are  harnessed  to  work  as  otherwise  they  would  not  be,  their  best  aspira- 
tions thwarted,  their  noblest  ambitions  sacrificed,  to  enable  the  partners 
of  their  joys  and  sorrow  to  vie  with  each  other  in  reproducing  the  last 
grotesque  absurdity  issued  from  the  precincts  of  Notre  Dame  de  Lorette, 
or  to  satisfy  caprices  not  less  ignoble.  The  main  hope  for  the  abatement 
of  this  nuisance,  which  is  fast  assuming  the  proportions  of  a  curse,  is 
not  in  any  church,  for,  despite  the  pleadings  of  the  most  devoted  pastors, 
the  church  edifices  are  the  chosen  theaters  of  this  display;  it  would  seem 
rafher  to  be  the  infusion,  by  a  more  worthy  education,  of  ideas  whch 
would  enable  women  to  weld  religion,  morality,  and  common  sense  against 
this  burdensome  perversion  of  her  love  for  the  beautiful.  This  would  not 
be  to  lower  the  sense  of  beauty  and  appropriateness  in  costume;  thereby 
would  come  an  esthetic  sense  which  would  lift  our  best  women  into  a 
sphere  of  beauty  where  the  Parisian  grotesque  would  not  be  tolerated; 


498  CO-EDUCATION 

thereby,  too,  would  come,  if  at  all,  the  strength  of  character  which  would 
cause  woman  to  cultivate  her  own  taste  for  simple  beauty  in  form  and 
color,  and  to  rely  on  that,  rather  than  on  the  latest  whim  of  any  foolish 
woman  who  happens  to  be  not  yet  driven  out  of  the  Tuilleries  or  th« 
Breda  quarter.' 

"I  refer  to  the  debating  societies  of  Sage  Conege  the  question  why  ed- 
ucated women  as  a  class  have  in  this  particular  completely  failed  to 
justify  the  confidence  which  President  White  placed  in  them.  .  .  .  The 
financial  burden  which  was  then  'fast  assuming  the  proportions  of  a 
curse,'  has  enormously  increased.  We  cannot  to-day  share  President 
White's  hope  for  relief  through  the  women's  colleges.  .  .  .  Even  the 
specific  training  in  this  department  which  has  been  recently  introduced 
seems  inclined  to  intensify  the  evil  rather  than  to  remedy  it.  ... 
In  Teachers  College  of  Columbia  University  there  is  a  thriving  depart- 
ment. I  visited  the  exhibition  of  the  best  work  of  the  advanced  students 
last  commencement  [1910],  and  I  must  say  that  I  saw  there  more  gro- 
tesque, ugly,  and  ungainly  hats  than  I  have  ever  seen  at  large  on  the 
streets  of  New  York." 

All  this  may  be  interesting,  but  it  is  not  significant;  because 
Andrew  D.  White,  with  all  his  wisdom  and  experience,  forgot  that 
the  colleges  are  by  no  means  a  dominant  factor  in  forming  the 
mores  of  a  people :  and  the  comments  on  the  disappointment  of  his 
hope  bear  rather  on  the  selection  of  professors  and  the  consequent 
matter  and  manner  of  teaching  than  on  co-education.  The  min- 
gling of  both  sexes  in  classes  for  instruction  and  in  collegiate 
intercourse  is  a  question  that  should  be  judged  on  the  broadest 
grounds. 

The  thoroughgoing  co-education  of  the  sexes  developed  in  the 
United  States  of  America  has  always  been  a  remarkable  phe- 
nomenon to  observers  capable  of  a  comprehensive  view  of  the 
societal  beliefs  and  practices  of  mankind;  but  it  is  only  recently 
that  critical  discussion  of  the  practice  would  be  tolerated  without 
resentment  against  the  speaker.  Indications  are  now  observable 
that  the  masses  have  found  in  their  own  unreflective  experience 


CO-EDUCATION  499 

grounds  of  doubt.  The  data  for  a  rational  opinion  lie  in  a  dis- 
jointed way  ready  to  hand;  but,  if  they  have  ever  been  assembled 
in  one  summary  view  and  consideration  I  am  not  aware  of  it. 
Pedagogy  has  talked  volubly  upon  the  subject;  physiology  and 
psychology,  particularly  in  studies  of  adolescence,  have  had  much 
to  say;  and  sociology  and  anthropology  contribute  matter  of  fun- 
damental import,  which  has  not  been  applied  at  all,  or  only  inci- 
dentally to  the  question  of  co-education.  Originality  (even  in 
phraseology)  is  here  repudiated.  I  shall  not  pause  to  make  direct 
quotations  and  cite  authorities;  but  expanded  explanation  and  full 
confirmation  may  be  found  in  the  separate  literatures  of  the  sci- 
ences involved  of  all  statements  1  shall  make  concerning  peda- 
gogic experience,  physiological  and  psychological  data,  and  the 
folkways  of  any  society.  The  contribution  to  clear  thinking  here 
attempted  is  the  assemblage,  for  mutual  illumination,  of  data 
which  must  be  held  all  in  one  view  for  a  valid  consideration  of  the 
subject. 

The  first  point  of  essential  importance  is  a  right  understand- 
ing of  the  societal  facts  which  you  wish  at  least  to  criticise,  and 
perhaps  dream  of  modifying  in  accordance  with  easily  accom- 
plished purposes,  provided  only  that  you  form  a  decided  opinion 
in  your  own  minds.  If,  however,  the  true  nature  of  the  facts  is 
understood,  one  finds  himself  in  the  attitude  of  a  powerless  ob- 
server, and  the  pose  of  the  puissant  reformer  necessarily  collapses. 
Enlightenment  in  any  such  matter  brings  that  change  of  attitude 
as  inevitably  as  knowledge  of  the  forces  that  determine  the  weather 
abolishes  the  pose  of  the  "medicine  man"  in  his  incantations  for 
rain  or  sunshine.  The  greatest  obstacle  to  improvements  which 
do  really  lie  within  the  power  of  the  critical  reflection  and  altru- 
istic effort  of  those  who  can  think  and  have  strong  altruistic  mo- 
tives, is  the  prevailing  ignorance,  even  in  the  select  persons  who 
have  that  power  and  those  motives,  of  the  true  nature  of  societal 


500  CO-EDUGATION 

facts  and  forces  and  how  the  folkways  and  mores  arise,  persist, 
and  change. 

Slowly  are  mass  prejudices  wrenched  from  the  mind,  and  never 
except  through  social  experiences,  which  operate  like  great  proc- 
esses of  nature,  and  are  not  more  (though  not  less)  amenable  to 
individual  effort  than  climatic  changes.  In  each  case  man  can 
do  a  little,  and  is  responsible  for  the  little  he  can  do.  Little  by 
little  he  can  irrigate,  plant  trees,  and  cultivate  the  soil  until  a 
climate  is  modified;  and  little  by  little  he  can  engender  temper- 
ance, honesty,  and  courage  until  the  manners  and  morals  of  a 
people  have  been  changed.  But  the  clouds  of  heaven  are  little 
less  immediately  influenced  by  the  accidental  dictum  of  a  political 
majority  or  the  laws  or  resolutions  of  a  legislature  or  a  debating 
society,  than  are  the  societal  practices  and  beliefs  or  even  the  mere 
folkways  of  a  large  group  of  mankind.  It  is  solely  from  such  a 
standpoint  that  our  practice  of  co-education  may  be  usefully  con- 
sidered. 

In  the  society  called  The  United  States  of  America,,  co-educa- 
tion is  established  in  our  mores;  and  its  universality  furnishes 
unquestionable  credentials  that  it  is  the  way  the  people  deem  the 
right  way.  They  may  alter  that  opinion,  but  no  man  nor  hun- 
dred men  could  by  mere  argument  perceptibly  hasten  or  retard 
a  change.  Such  an  event,  when  it  happens,  comes  to  pass  as  the 
wind  blows — when  it  listeth,  and,  I  might  almost  add,  no  man 
knoweth  how  or  why.  Only  a  few  scientific  meteorologists  in  the 
one  case,  and  still  fewer  scientific  sociologists  in  the  other  could 
explain  the  events. 

Folkways  are  the  habits  and  customs  in  a  society  that  have 
won  authority  and  regulate  succeeding  generations.  As  certain 
folkways  become  involved  with  judgments  about  welfare  and  right 
living  they  are  raised  to  a  higher  plane.  Such  folkways  are 
called  mores.  All  folkways  develop  unconsciously.  Never  were 


MORES  501 

they  foreseen  or  intended.  They  may  be  modified  only  very 
slightly  by  designed  effort.  They  are  transformed  or  decline 
and  become  extinct  for  causes  comparable  with  those  by  which 
the  vital  organisms  whose  fossil  remains  are  found  in  the  strata 
of  bygone  geological  ages  were  transformed  or  became  extinct. 
The  folkways  that  have  engendered  or  assimilated  judgments  or 
philosophies  of  right  living  and  social  welfare,  and  thus  become 
mores,  control  social  undertakings.  The  margin  of  freedom  and 
voluntary  variation  differs  for  individuals,  but  the  bulk  of  the 
thoughts  and  acts  of  the  freest  one  of  us  are  cast  in  the  moulds 
of  the  mores  into  which  he  was  born.  Folkways  always  seem 
right  to  those  who  practice  them ;  as  for  the  mores,  they  are  verit- 
able articles  of  faith  as  long  as  they  flourish. 

The  people  are  conservative,  not  with  the  conservatism  of  aris- 
tocracies, but  as  the  bearers  of  the  mores.  They  imitate,  and 
accept  leadership;  but  they  do  as  they  see  fit.  Whatever  they 
take  up  they  make  a  part  of  their  mores,  and  then  refuse  to  dis- 
card, and  defend  all  in  its  new  integrity.  The  chief  reason  for 
any  large  societal  phenomenon  is  that  it  agrees  with  the  mores. 
Historians  and  sociologists  have  always  dimly  and  incidentally 
noticed  this;  but  it  is  recently  coming  to  be  understood  as  the 
main  clue.  Doctrinal  teaching  never  suddenly  modified  the  mores 
of  any  society.  "It  would  be  a  great  mistake,"  says  Professor 
W.  G.  Sumner  (in  whose  work  on  the  subject  may  be  found  proved 
and  illustrated  all  that  is  here  said  about  folkways),  "to  suppose 
that  any  people  ever  accepted  and  held  philosophical  or  religious 
teaching  as  it  was  offered  to  them,  and  as  we  find  it  recorded 
in  the  books  of  the  teachers.  What  the  classes  adopt,  be  it  good 
or  ill,  may  be  found  pervading  the  mass  after  generations,  but  it 
will  appear  as  a  resultant  of  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the  folkways 
in  the  interval.  .  .  .  What  the  masses  do  with  thoughts  is 
that  they  rub  them  down  into  counters  just  as  they  take  coins 


502  CO-EDUCATION 

from  the  mint  and  smooth  them  down  by  wear  until  they  are  only 
disks  of  metal."  For  instance,  the  masses  misunderstood  (and 
still  misunderstand)  that  Darwin  taught  that  "men  are  descended 
from  monkeys."  But  if  anyone  wants  to  blame  the  masses  let 
him  turn  to  his  own  case.  He  will  find  that  he  understands  only 
his  own  intellectual  pursuits.  In  other  matters  he  is  one  of  the 
masses,  and  does  as  they  do. 

It  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that  "the  people"  have  an  inspiration 
by  which  they  select  the  good  out  of  all  that  thinkers  offer.  On 
the  contrary,  they  are  prone  to  be  swept  into  mischief  by  false 
suggestion,  and  are  therefore  always  an  object  of  exploitation  un- 
less organized  under  genuine  leaders.  Otherwise — the  "machine" 
and  the  "boss,"  or  the  mob.  Any  popular  agitation  that  calls  for 
judgments  (other  than  the  choice  of  worthy  leaders)  in  a  matter 
not  thoroughly  comprehended,  is  a  doubtful  procedure,  even 
though  the  end  sought  is  desirable.  "The  great  popular  jury, 
which  at  last,  by  adoption  or  rejection,  decides  the  fate  of  all 
proposed  changes  in  the  mores,  needs  stability  and  moderation." 
As  for  agitations  that  appeal  to  ever  latent  fanaticism,  they  are 
of  all  social  evils  the  worst.  The  only  limit  to  the  fanaticism 
that  might  be  excited  is  the  fund  of  common  sense  and  habit  of 
calmness  and  moderation  previously  developed  in  the  mores  of 
the  society. 

If  what  has  been  said  can  effectively  suggest  the  right  attitude 
toward  the  question  of  co-education  a.nd  make  clear  the  nature 
of  the  problem,  these  remarks  have  not  been  too  long. 

Population,  race,  marriage,  child-bearing,  and  the  education  of 
the  young  present  to  civilization  its  greatest  issues  and  most  un- 
fathomable mysteries.  Current  discussion  of  social  interests  deals 
mostly  with  questions  about  property,  but  it  is  the  sex  relation 
that  presents  the  most  serious  problems. 

I  may  eliminate  any  question  of  opening  the  university  in  the 


CO-EDUCATION  503 

European  sense,  that  is  post-graduate  courses  of  American  uni- 
versities, to  men  and  women  on  the  same  terms.  Women  who 
choose  to  go  into  the  fields  of  special  scholarship  should  have 
access  to  institutions  where  such  researches  are  prosecuted.  We 
may  waive,  also,  the  question  of  co-education  in  elementary  schools, 
especially  if  the  eight  years  still  commonly  consumed  in  the  ele- 
mentary school  is  to  be  reduced.*  The  subject  may  be  thus  lim- 
ited to  co-education  in  the  high  school  and  during  undergraduate 
studies  in  colleges. 

Whatever  is  in  the  mores  always  seems  right  to  the  overwhelm- 
ing majority,  "Ninety-eight  per  cent,"  they  say,  "of  public  high 
schools,  and  ninety-four  per  cent  of  all  the  pupils  in  all  our  sec- 
ondary schools  are  receiving  their  education  where  boys  and  girls 
meet  on  a  common  level.  It  must  be  the  right  way." 

Collateral  supports  and  superficial  advantages  of  co-education 
are  obvious.  For  instance,  we  all  uphold  woman's  title  to  all 
opportunities  for  intellectual  growth  that  the  society  can  provide. 
That  principle  has  become  almost  absolute  in  the  mores  of  western 
peoples.  One  would  be  an  outcast  who  advocated  restraining 
woman  from  learning  anything  she  craves  to  know,  or  cutting 
her  off  arbitrarily  from  any  sort  of  instruction  she  seeks.  It  is 
partly  because  criticism  of  co-education  is  confused  with  such 
abominated  attitudes  that  it  has  always  elicited  frantic  resent- 
ment from  militant  associations  of  women  and  from  the  compliant 
men  whom  they  dominate.  Of  course,  no  intelligent  critic  raises 
any  such  question. 

Economic  conditions  support,  as  they  originated  co-education; 
and  it  ought  to  be  recognized  that,  if  pecuniary  limitations  permit 
only  one  high  school  in  a  community,  that  school  must  be  open 
to  boys  and  girls.  In  such  places  the  rule  of  necessity  settles 
the  question. 

*See  Note  on  Elementary  Schools,  pp.  386-398. 


5'04  CO-EDUCATION 

In  addition  to  the  inevitable  assent  to  mass  opinion  by  the 
majority  of  teachers,  there  are  many  'shop'  reasons  why  teachers 
and  school  superintendents  favor  co-education.  Discipline  of  the 
commonplace  sort  is  easier.  Greater  power  to  control  is  required 
of  a  teacher  of  adolescent  boys,  or  of  a  teacher  of  adolescent  girls, 
than  of  a  teacher  of  a  mixed  class.  Eoutine  teaching  of  the  com- 
monplace sort  is,  also,  more  satisfactory,  by  reason  of  a  mutual 
stimulation  to  excel  in  the  "marks,"  which  are  held  up  by  teachers 
and  regarded  by  pupils  and  parents  as  objects  of  desirable  emu- 
lation; the  boys  (who  do  not  drop  out)  seem  more  docile.  To  the 
majority  of  teachers  these  facts  seern  to  settle  the  question. 

Some  fallacious  arguments  have  been  used  against  co-education, 
and  the  demolishment  of  those  arguments  has  been  regarded  as 
proof  that  all  criticism  must  be  captious.  For  instance,  co-educa- 
tion has  been  objected  to  upon  "moral"  grounds,  and  the  charge 
has  been  refuted,  at  least  in  the  sense  in  which  the  word  moral 
has  been  used  in  the  debates  referred  to.  Other  critics  have  ar- 
gued that  on  account  of  physical  and  mental  differences  we  injure 
the  girl  by  feeding  her  intellectual  rations  provided  for  boys,  fol- 
lowing with  pleas  for  text-books  and  methods  of  teaching  to  cor- 
respond with  sex  differences.  The  lack  of  sequence  in  the  argu- 
ment of  the  advocates  of  female  grammar,  female  algebra,  female 
botany,  etc.,  is  easily  exposed.  The  mere  facts  of  physiological 
and  mental  differences  no  more  logically  require  different  subject- 
matter  or  different  methods  of  instruction,  than  the  same  facts 
require  different  foodstuffs  or  different  cooking.  Whether  the  con- 
clusion be  right  or  wrong  it  does  not  follow  from  the  argument. 
To  me  it  appears  that  different  subject-matter  might  proftably 
be  chosen  on  account  of  limitations  in  time  and  for  subsequent 
utility;  but  I  am  sure  that  if  instruction  is  to  be  given  in  any 
science,  the  text-book  and  the  method  of  teaching  that  present  it 
in  the  most  unified  simplicity  possible  for  the  present  stage  of 


CO-EDUCATION  505 

human  knowledge  and  with  open  admission  of  doubtful  and  un- 
known elements,  are  the  best  for  every  rational  mind,  whether 
male  or  female. 

Space  does  not  permit  further  cataloging  of  fallacious  objec- 
tions to  co-education,  or  further  statement  of  its  advantages.  The 
main  points  have  been  mentioned,  including  the  paramount  sup- 
port furnished  by  the  hitherto  satisfied  experience  of  an  entire 
people.  As  I  have  said,  all  mores  arise  without  intention.  For 
one  reason  or  another  something  is  done  in  a  certain  way  by  a 
few;  if  found  to  be  convenient  that  way  is  imitated;  if  adopted 
widely,  it  becomes  one  of  the  things  that  "everybody  does";  it  i& 
therefore  right  and  not  to  be  disputed.  If  a  time  comes  when 
the  people  will  harken  to  criticism,  the  custom  is  already  dying 
or  changing  to  a  new  type. 

Having  pointed  out  the  fallacies  in  some  objections  to  co-educa- 
tion, and  the  main  grounds  for  its  existence,  and  its  practical 
justification  in  some  instances,  some  other  objections  that  merit 
thoughtful  attention  must  be  indicated.  Such  objections  are 
based  chiefly  on  vital  organization  and  social  interests  in  the 
family.  Of  course,  the  alleged  incompatibilities  of  co-education 
with  such  interests  may  be  mistaken, — that  is  what  we  should 
try  to  decide  without  .prejudice. 

From  puberty  on,  normal  boys  and  girls  begin  to  differentiate 
rapidly  in  vital  organization  and  in  quality  of  soul.  The  dif- 
ference increases  up  to  full  maturity  and  is  far  greater  in  civili- 
zation than  in  savagery.  Motherhood  is  a  different  matter  from 
fatherhood.  Ought  adolescent  girls,  in  order  to  mature  aright, 
have  mental  and  sentimental  (as  well  as  the  physical)  periods  of 
instability,  when  they  should  not  be  required  to  repress  instinctive 
feelings  that  prompt  to  withdrawal  from  the  opposite  sex?  To 
students  of  nature,  it  appears  that  sex  differentiation  ought  to  be 
fostered  to  make  women  more  womanly  and  men  more  manly, 


506  CO-EDUCATION 

instead  of  merging  the  diverse  characteristics.  That  the  mixed 
high  school  does  interfere  with  an  order  and  relations  established 
through  long  biotic  processes  and  societal  arrangements,  is  a  fact. 
Whether  the  interference  with  nature  and  conflicting  mores  be 
for  good  or  for  evil  may  be  questioned. 

Investigations  by  President  Hall  arid  others  show  that  the 
ideals  of  high  school  girls  are  becoming  increasingly  masculine. 
If  womanly  ideals  be  in  fact  diminishing  in  power  of  appeal  to 
girls,  womanly  character  is  threatened  with  disintegration.  It 
does  not  seem  suitable  to  the  glory  of  womanhood,  or  with  the 
interests  of  the  race,  that  the  ideals  of  girls  should  cease  to  be 
noble  women.  The  investigators  report:  "The  school  girls  in 
these  censuses  chose  male  ideals  as  if  those  of  femininity  were 
disintegrating";  and  one  of  them  concludes,  "Unless  there  is  a 
change  of  trend  we  shall  soon  have  a  female  sex  without  a  female 
character."  The  last  oracular  opinion  is  rather  paradoxical,  but 
it  seems  clear  that  a  progressive  change  has  been  going  on  and 
is  likely  to  continue  as  long  as  boys  and  girls  in  secondary  schools 
are  taught  in  mixed  classes  chiefly  by  female  teachers.  Again  I 
say,  the  fact  may  be  judged  to  be  for  good  or  for  ill;  but  it 
should  not  be  denied  or  evaded. 

Turning  to  the  effects  of  co-education  on  boys,  we  have  noted 
that  ordinary  school  discipline  is  rendered  easier  by  co-education. 
This  one  point  carries  the  vote  of  present  teachers  for  co-education. 
Undoubtedly  each  sex  develops  some  of  its  best  qualities  in  the 
presence  of  the  other,  and  opportunity  for  such  development 
should  be  offered;  but  the  question  remains:  Are  the  relations 
in  identical  work  and  class  rooms  too  prolonged,  or  not  of  a  good 
kind?  Will  the  boy  forced  to  be  too  much  with  girls  lose  some- 
thing from  the  raw  material  of  manhood?  In  high  schools  the 
number  of  girls  exceeds  the  number  of  boys,  especially  in  the 


CO-EDUCATION  507 

upper  classes,  and  in  many  of  them  the  boys  who  remain  are  in 
a  girls'  school. 

Consideration  may  be  due  the  boys  because  under  prevalent 
methods  of  teaching  the  girls  sc  much  excel  them.  Especially 
does  the  gawky,  inarticulate  fellow  deserve  consideration.  The 
girls  discourage  this  boy.  The  teacher  gets  such  satisfactory  re- 
sults from  the  girls  that  she  (to  use  the  pronoun  which  has  come 
in  this  country  to  be  used  in  reference  to  the  substantive  teacher} 
allows  the  boys  to  drag  along.  She  simply  "marks  them  down." 
Especially  if  the  boys  have  spent  eight  )rears  in  the  elementary 
school  and  incipient  beards  have  begun  to  grow,  withdrawal  fol- 
lows failure  of  "promotion."  It  is  not  derogatory  either  from 
womanhood  or  womankind  to  suggest  a  need  of  manly  instruction 
for  adolescent  boys. 

It  is  not  only  the  backward  boy  who  is  concerned.  During 
adolescence  girls  are  normally  more  precocious  than  boys  of  the 
same  age.  They  surpass  the  boys  in  all  studies  in  which  recita- 
tion methods  prevail.  It  is  when  text-books  are  laid  aside  and 
the  students  are  thrown  on  their  own  resources  that  the  best  that 
is  in  the  boys  is  evoked.  But  as  the  class  seems  to  do  so  well 
under  the  usual  routine,  teachers  are  loth  to  change  to  methods 
of  individual  and  critical  investigation,  which  would  be  better  for 
boys  and  girls.  There  is  here  indicated  a  reaction  from  co-educa- 
tion unfavorable  to  improvement  in  ways  of  teaching. 

Endless  investigations  into  competitive  school  and  college  stand- 
ing of  boys  and  girls  and  young  men  and  young  women  have  been 
made ;  but  would  it  not  be  better  if  the  whole  notion  of  intersexual 
competition  during  youth  were  eradicated?  If  girls  grew  to 
womanhood  in  womanly  activities,  and  if  boys  plodded  through 
their  longer  growth  to  manhood  in  toil  and  play  mainly  among 
boys  and  men,  perhaps  all  would  be  better  prepared  both  for  the 
normal  complementary  relations  and  for  such  competition  during 


508  CO-EDUCATION 

maturity  as  economic  exigencies  or  individual  choice  may  call  for. 
In  any  case,  there  should  be  no  war  of  sex  against  sex,  and  by 
imagining  that  there  is  or  ought  to  be  one,  some  wonem  have 
brought  many  hardships  upon  us  all. 

Having  presented  the  most  obvious  arguments  for  and  against 
co-education,  it  might  be  advantageous  to  close  at  this  point,  with 
the  statement  that  in  my  judgment  the  evidence  is  in  favor  of 
arrangements  that  will  obviate  tli&  spirit  and  practice  of  direct 
competition  between  adolescent  boys  and  girls  and  between  young 
men  and  young  women,  wherever  it  is  possible  to  do  so  without 
diminishing  for  either  sex  opportunities  for  the  best  education 
that  the  community  can  provide;  adding  the  special  counsel  for 
the  few  high  schools  and  colleges  still  not  co-educational,  that  they 
hold  steadfastly  to  their  conservative  policy,  at  least  until  the 
"boiling  pot"  of  these  times  settles  to  some  quietude  and  clearness. 

But  I  would  not  be  treating  you  frankly  if  I  did  not  submit  one 
more  connection  of  our  far-reaching  subject,  namely,  the  bearing 
of  co-education  upon  the  family  and  marriage.  I  can  give  no  con- 
clusion of  my  own  judgment.  The  true  bearings  seem  to  me  to 
be  yet  inscrutable. 

At  the  age  of  undergraduate  studies  in  college  the  normal 
young  woman  has  great  strength  to  endure  strain,  if  it  be  well 
timed,  and  ripened  self-knowledge,  and  maturity  of  intuitional 
judgments.  During  those  years,  Dr.  Hall  declares,  she  ought  to  be 
nearer  to  genius  and  more  beautiful  than  she  can  ever  be  again.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  statistics  show  that  more  women  become  mothers 
during  those  four  years  than  during  any  other  quadrennium  of  life, 
and  with  the  least  mortality  in  childbirth.  The  male  youth  of 
the  same  age  is  not  even  approximately  as  near  to  his  maturity. 
The  mating  instincts  of  the  young  woman  normally  turn  to  men 
about  five  years  older  than  herself.  In  short,  the  girl  is  ripe,  the 
boy  of  equal  age  is  not.  She  knows  her  male  classmate  better 


CO-EDUCATION  509 

than  he  knows  himself;  he  seems  to  her  crude;  often  unwed  life 
conies  to  seem  to  her  preferable.  This  he  feels,  and  is  humiliated 
by  her  superiority  in  most  classroom  exercises  and  in  self-posses- 
sion. The  young  woman,  because  she  notes  how  easily  she  com- 
petes with  her  callow  classmates,  readily  turns  to  plans  of  self- 
support.  She  does  not  realize  how  much  more  male  youths  of 
her  age  will  grow  in  mind  and  character  long  after  she  has  ceased 
to  do  so,  and  how  far  stronger  than  her  classmates  she  must  find 
her  real  male  competitors  in  life.  This  mistake  has  been  a  fre- 
quent tragedy  in  the  lives  of  our  highest  spirited  young  women. 
On  the  side  of  the  young  men,  I  do  not  know  how  much  co- 
education in  college  interferes  with  the  instinct  toward  temporary 
celibacy  which  ought  to  rule  the  young  man  preparing  for  intel- 
lectual leadership.  Some  hold  that  such  interference  often  leads 
to  marriages  which  involve  the  handicapping  or  abandonment  of 
well  chosen  careers.  Others  hold  contrarily,  that  mutual  dis- 
illusioning weakens  the  motives  to  marriage  on  both  sides.  The 
question  is  myriad  sided. 

If  you  would  attempt  to  predict  about  co-education, — change 
in  the  present  popular  judgment  must  be  looked  for  in  some  con- 
flict which  will  arise,  in  mass  experience,  with  some  other  deeper 
fixed  and  stronger  custom.  The  mores  change  only  by  conflict  one 
with  another. 

It  seems  to  me  that  unless  the  masses  of  our  society  find  in  un- 
argumeivtative  experience  practical  conflict  between  co-education, 
and  pair-marriage  and  the  family  as  maintained  thereby,  co-edu- 
cation will  continue  to  hold  the  approval  it  now  holds  unaffected 
by  reflective  criticism. 

The  term  pair-marriage  is  needed  to  designate  the  form  of 
marriage  which  is  as  exclusive  and  permanent  for  the  man  as  for 
the  woman.  It  would  be  monogamy  if  a  man  had  one  wife  in 
fact,  although  free  to  have  more  if  he  choose.  Pair-marriage  in 


510  CO-EDUCATION 

our  mores  has  swept  all  other  forms  away.  It  has  nourished  family- 
pride  and  solidarity.  It  is  the  harrier  against  which  all  com- 
munistic collectivism  breaks  into  foam  and  mist.  Pair-marriage 
and  the  family  are  the  strongholds  of  what  the  communistic  social- 
ist calls  the  "individualistic  vices."  Every  such  collectivist  who 
can  think  must  be  willing  to  attack  marriage  and  the  family;  he 
masks  his  batteries,  because  he  does  not  dare  openly  to  make  that 
attack.  But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  those  who  are 
now  satisfied  will  alone  control  changes  which  the  future  may 
bring  in  the  mores.  It  is  not  difficult  to  make  marriage  such 
that  men  will  refuse  it.  Women  might  also  revolt.  At  present 
there  is  little  care  or  pity  for  those  who  cannot  adapt  themselves 
or  their  circumstances  to  it.  Divorce  is  allowed,  but  with  proper 
vexation  against  those  who  use  it.  Our  mores  now  require  that 
man  and  woman  should  marry  through  love.  Conjugal  love  de- 
mands great  good  sense  and  good  nature  in  both  husband  and 
wife.  These  are  hard  exactions  for  the  success  of  pair-marriage; 
it  is  no  wonder  that  they  are  often  wanting.  Nevertheless,  the 
ideal  has  been  made  an  object  of  pathos,  and  whenever  the  aegis 
of  pathos  is  put  over  a  matter  it  is  protected  from  severe  examina- 
tion. "Pathos  is  unfavorable  to  truth,"  it  has  been  said,  because 
popular  disapproval  of  truth-telling  about  the  matter  protected 
by  pathos  coerces  individuals  to  hypocrisy.  Special  difficulties 
arise  for  specific  modifications  of  the  ideal.  The  old  way  pro- 
vided that  one  of  the  two  wills  involved  in  every  marriage  should 
yield  to  the  other,  and  it  was  the  woman's  will  that  was  bound 
by  her  own  conscience  to  yield.  Since  that  no  longer  seems  right, 
the  modern  way  too  commonly  involves  endless  dissension,  or 
moral  breakdown  for  one  of  the  parties.  The  predominance  of 
the  mores  concerning  pair-marriage  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
the  great  words  moral  and  immoral  have  been  reduced  in  the 
mouths  of  the  masses  to  mean  what  agrees  with  and  what  dis- 


CONCLUDING   REMARKS  511 

agrees  with  the  code  of  pair-marriage.  In  America  no  exception 
is  tolerated.  In  Europe  morganatic  marriages  for  princes  are 
still  approved,  which  illustrates  how  no  way  of  solving  a  life  prob- 
lem provided  in  the  mores  is  deemed  wrong.  No  regulation  could 
be  instituted  which  would  not  bear  hardly  on  some.  Pair-mar- 
riage excludes  a  large  part  of  the  population.  It  assumes  that 
every  man  and  woman  can  find  a  mate,  which  is  not  true.  Yet 
everything  that  violates  the  taboo  in  the  mores  is  vice  and  is 
disastrous  to  all  participants.  The  more  real  pair-marriage  is 
among  a  people,  the  more  disastrous  is  every  illicit  relation,  the 
harm  being  infinitely  greater  to  women  than  to  men.  Unmarried 
women,  save  the  exceptionally  good  or  talented,  lead  aimless  lives, 
or  are  burdened  by  peculiar  difficulties  in  earning  independent 
livings.  Such  is  the  price  paid  for  the  gain  gotten  from  pair- 
marriage. 

Inasmuch,  then,  as  there  does  exist  much  need  of  supporting 
conditions  favorable  to  happiness  in  pair-marriage,  it  may  be  in- 
ferred^, if  such  happiness  continues  to  be  a  fundamental  desire 
in  the  hearts  of  the  whole  people,  that  any  custom  which  appears 
in  wide  experience  to  be  in  any  way  inimical  to  that  supreme  wish 
will  gradually  fall  under  disapproval  and  will  be  ultimately  trans- 
formed or  abolished.  The  predominant  mores  will  control. 

Concluding  Remarks 

Imperfect  as  the  reflections  offered  in  this  book  must  be,  their 
purview  has  been  wide  and  comprehensive.  Each  problem  of  the 
broad  and  important  matter  has  been  at  least  considered  in  its 
fundamental  bearings  and  in  its  vital  relations  with  all  associated 
parts  of  the  whole.  The  major  portion  of  the  composition  has 
been  performed  during  a  time  of  sorrow  and  perplexity  for  the 
author,  and  indisposition  also,  in  which  the  labor  has  been  painful 
in  itself  and  interfered  with  by  conflicting  demands  on  almost 
every  moment.  Cardinal  Xewman  said  in  reference  to  his  dis- 


512  CONCLUDING   REMARKS 

courses  on  a  cognate  subject:  "No  anxiety,  no  effort  of  mind  is 
more  severe  than  his,  who  in  a  difficult  matter  has  it  seriously  at 
heart  to  investigate  without  error  and  to  instruct  without  obscur- 
ity: if  the  past  discussion  has  at  any  time  tried  the  patience  of 
persons  who  have  given  it  their  attention,  I  can  assure  them  that 
on  no  one  can  it  have  inflicted  so  great  labor  and  fatigue  as  on 
myself."  But  as  the  same  noble  spirit  has  elsewhere  said,  "there 
is  room  for  only  one  true  fear  in  man;  that  fear  is  that  he  may 
be  wrong,"  and  I  have  the  supreme  solace  of  believing  that  no 
grave  or  extensive  error  has  been  pursued. 

The  last  thirty  years  include  a  period  of  extraordinary  expan- 
sion by  the  colleges  and  universities  of  this  country  in  pecuniary 
resources  and  number  of  students.  The  immediate  future  ought 
to  see  the  beginning  of  an  era  of  intrinsic  improvement  and  co- 
ordination. Improvement  may  be  indicated  by  growth  in  size 
where  it  comes  healthfully,  but  hypertrophy  must  not  be  mistaken 
for  sound  development;  co-ordination  of  external  relations  is 
needed  to  some  extent  in  some  cases,  but  internal  co-ordination 
(that  is,  right  organization)  is  the  vital  need. 

The  paramount  requirement  for  the  opening  of  an  era  of  im- 
provement is  a  correct  diagnosis  of  the  main  cause  of  the  evident 
troubles,  together  with  right  ideals  for  amelioration.  Wisdom  may 
sometimes  be  found  in  a  multitude  of  counsellors;  but  even  so,  the 
differences  are  for  correction  or  supplementation — for  contrast, 
not  for  "averaging."  One  diagnosis  is  correct,  whether  given  in 
the  counsel  or  not.  The  bad  symptoms  are  evident;  but  to  one 
adviser  of  the  "big-headed"  president,  and  to  another  the  "pin- 
headed"  regent  is  "the  veritable  black  beast  of  the  academic  jungle." 
They  prescribe  accordingly  the  abolishment  of  president  or  govern- 
ing boards.  The  diatribes  to  which  the  quoted  epithets  refer  are 
naturally  provoked  by  existing  conditions,  but  neither  view  gives 
a  diagnosis  of  a  constitutional  disorder,  because  big-heads  and  pin- 
heads,  though  troublesome  entities,  are  details;  they  occur  in  such 
positions  through  erroneous  selection;  they  might  occur  under  any 


CONCLUDING   EEMAKKS  513 

constitutional  arrangement.  (See  pages  2  and  3  and  page  241.) 
It  is  the  "academic  jungle"  itself  that  nedes  to  he  made  an  orderly 
park,  and  then  no  beast  will  be  black  enough  to  affright  or  strong 
enough  to  destroy. 

Other  advisers  (mostly  of  the  sort  who  always  shrink  from  any- 
thing that  anybody  could  possibly  construe  as  personal  criticism) 
attribute  the  great  troubles  to  "rivalry"  and  "duplication,"  and 
prescribe  consolidation  or  a  central  board  (with  or  without  sub- 
ordinate boards),  sometimes  adding  demands  that  the  state  legis- 
lature should  prescribe  or  limit  the  rival  curricula.  This  diagnosis 
is  especially  dangerous  because  laymen — including  particularly  the 
ordinary  regent,  legaislator,  and  governor — are  apt  to  be  satisfied 
with  it.  The  specious  diagnosis  appeals  to  so  much  that  is  self- 
evident  and  the  remedial  prescription  seems  to  follow  so  logically, 
that  they  are  prone  to  imagine  the  difficulty  has  been  solved.  Every 
fact  and  every  principle  cited  in  this  book  points  to  a  different 
diagnosis  and  to  less  off-hand  remedies.  Men  undertake  to  arbi- 
trate this  weighty  problem  who  would  scout  the  idea  of  taking  the 
time  to  read  a  book  or  to  listen  to  more  than  fragmentary  talk  on 
the  subject.  They  demand  "easy  things  to  understand,"  yet  as- 
sume to  decide  thereby  the  most  momentous  issues.  We  can  only 
appeal  to  the  consciences  of  the  men  in  places  of  power  and  re- 
sponsibility— not  to  accept,  but — to  hear  and  judge  patient  expo- 
sitions before  they  act.  This  would  require  all  of  their  spare  time 
for  a  week,  perhaps  for  a  month;  but  do  they  suppose  they  can 
understand  a  matter  in  which  a  nation  has,  confessedly,  gone 
astray,  with  less  attention? 

It  may  be  well  to  add  a  concluding  remark  to  refute  a  miscon- 
ception to  which  this  book  should  not  be  liable,  but  which  will  prob- 
ably be  advanced  against  it.  Some  persons  may  answer  my  counsel 
by  asserting  that  I  have  "attacked"  the  institutions  of  higher  edu- 
cation. I  need  only  remind  the  candid  reader  that  a  scientific 
treatise  on  public  hygiene  must  describe  the  effects  and  causes  of 
disease,  and  that  this  is  done  not  in  contempt  of  good  health  but 


514  CONCLUDING   REMARKS 

in  appreciation  thereof.  Are  overzealous  patriots  right  when  they 
feel  resentment  against  an  engineer  who  has  advised  that  their 
city's  supply  of  drinking  water  is  dangerously  polluted?  Is  not 
some  neurosis  indicated  in  a  patient,  or  is  he  not  at  least  morbidly 
egotistical,  if  he  reviles  the  physician  who  tells  him  that  his 
plumpness  is  caused  not  by  sound  adipose  tissue  but  by  dropsical 
accumulations?  Arguments  should,  of  course,  stand  on  their 
merits  and  it  is  almost  foolish  to  talk  about  the  motives  of  their 
proponents.  Universities  and  colleges  have  nothing  to  fear  even 
from  hostile  criticism.  They  can  be  injured  only  by  those  of  their 
own  households, — except  for  disorganizing  legislation,  and  in  such 
cases  the  bad  proposal  has  usually  originated  from  within  or  the 
internal  resistance  has  been  weak  or  confused  or  at  cross  purposes. 
If  a  college  or  university  will  perform  with  quiet  diligence  its  in- 
valuable services — in  all  honesty  and  simplicity  and  straightfor- 
ward thoroughness,  no  outside  force  can  seriously  harm  it.  In 
short,  I  have  spoken  plainly  of  deficiencies  and  of  mistakes  and  of 
disorders,  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  faithful  are  the  wounds 
of  a  friend. 


APPENDIX 

NOTE  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF  PART  I 

Part  I — pages  1  to  70 — was  published  in  advanced  sheets  in  Decem- 
ber, 1912.  If  it  were  desirable  it  would  not  be  practicable  to  extend  to 
date  the  "historical  summary"  there  given  (pp.  13-18)  ;  but  the  events 
of  the  two  years  that  have  intervened  would  give  no  new  light.  For 
instance,  the  "threatened  calamity"  (pp.  16-17)  in  Kansas  came  to  pass  in 
1913;  and  in  the  spring  of  the  same  year  all  of  Idaho's  state  educational 
institutions  went  under  one  governing  board.  To  rehearse  the  newly  ex- 
perienced and  impending  troubles  would  be  mere  repetition. 

An  adequate  account  of  the  struggle  between  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin and  the  State  Department  of  Education  would  add  some  important 
warnings,  but  files  of  1913  and  1914  journals  will  readily  supply  the  data. 

The  systematic  co-operation  established  in  January,  1914,  between  Har- 
vard University  and  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  was  an 
important  and  encouraging  event  which  should  be  studied  in  detail  by 
administrators. 

In  respect  to  the  plans  for  Texas  described  in  Part  I,  a  brief  supple- 
mental statement  is  necessary: 

Just  before  the  legislature  met  in  January,  1913,  the  governing  boards 
of  all  the  institutions  agreed  unanimously  to  the  text  of  a  constitutional 
amendment  in  which  the  measures  recommended  in  Part  I  (pp.  33-50) 
were  thoroughly  incorporated.  The  Governor  submitted  it  intact  to  the 
legislature,  as  an  exhibit  attached  to  a  special  message  on  the  subject  of 
the  State's  work  of  education.  It  was  introduced  in  duplicate  joint  reso- 
lutions in  both  houses.  Prompt  committee  reports  emphasized  the  care- 
fulness of  its  preparation  and  its  approval  by  every  organized  educa- 
tional interest  in  the  State,  and  each  committee  exhorted  its  house  to 
adopt  the  measure  unanimously  and  without  amendment.  The  situation 
appeared  to  be  one  of  unparalleled  harmony.  All  that  it  had  been  hoped 
at  the  outset  might  be  accomplished  in  five  years  seemed  about  to  be 
achieved  in  one  year.  Suddenly  this  prospect  was  cast  into  a  strange 
confusion. 

It  must  suffice  to  state  the  following  facts:  A  revolt  of  students  about 
an  affair  of  hazing  happened  at  the  A.  and  M.  College.  The  event  was, 
of  course,  in  itself  irrelevant  to  the  business  of  framing  a  State's  organic 
laws;  yet  it  was  seized  as  an  occasion  for  an  attempt  to  move  the  faculty 
and  students  of  the  A.  and  M.  to  Austin  and  make  the  College  a  division 
of  the  University.  The  bill  proposing  this  (and  nothing  else),  though 
introduced  in  the  first  month  of  the  session,  was  never  even  considered 
by  the  legislature;  but  a  peculiar  paralysis  followed  its  introduction. 
When  the  time  came  to  vote  on  the  great  deliberate  measure,  the  House 
gave  it  unanimous  approval  excepting  two  votes,  but  the  Senate  failed  to 
give  the  required  two-thirds. 

There  were  honest  differences  of  opinion  as  to  what  the  Senate's  action 
would  have  been  if  the  confusion  had  never  arisen;  but  it  would  be  very 
unfair,  under  the  circumstances,  to  blame  the  legislature.  Neither  ought 
any  institution  or  corporate  body  be  accused,  for  none  such  broke  the  faith 
of  its  agreement.  It  would  be  best  if  everyone  would  banish  all  thought 
of  blame.  The  proponents  of  the  antagonistic  measure  had  good  inten- 
tions; and  the  few  who  approved  it  either  believed  it  to  be  the  best  way, 
or  feared  that  the  settlement  agreed  to  after  a  year's  study  and  consul- 


516  APPENDIX 

tation  might  not  be  adopted  by  the  legislature  and  concluded  that  its 
opposite  was  preferable  to  no  action.  All  should  now  strive  to  restore 
confidence  for  a  renewal  of  the  enterprise  in  harmonious  co-operation. 
Look  upon  the  frustration  of  the  first  attempt  as  a  case  like  the  battle 
that  was  lost  by  the  loss  of  a  horse-shoe  nail,  and  do  not  fear  to  try  again. 

It  would  be  profitless  to  discuss  a  constitutional  amendment  afterwards 
submitted  to  the  people  by  the  same  legislature.  No  permanent  interest 
attaches  to  it.  It  dealt  with  bond  issuing  powers  of  various  state  and 
local  authorities,  and  did  nothing  in  the  way  of  organizing  or  providing 
support  for  the  educational  institutions.  It  expressly  concerned  the  lat- 
ter only  as  authorizing  the  board  of  regents  of  the  University  to  pledge 
the  entire  university  permanent  fund  for  bonds  for  university  buildings; 
but  real  or  supposed  implications  caused  it  to  be  deemed  inimical  to 
some  vested  interests  of  the  A.  and  M.  College  and  to  its  autonomy.  It 
was  overwhelmingly  defeated. 

This  measure,  known  in  bitter  pre-election  discussion  as  S.  J.  R.  No.  18, 
has  been  confused  by  persons  who  did  not  give  close  attention  to  the  ante- 
cedent developments,  with  the  measure  originally  proposed  by  the  Organ- 
ization for  the  Enlargement  by  the  State  of  Texas  of  its  Institutions  of 
Higher  Education  and  agreed  to  by  all  the  governing  boards.  The  advent 
in  the  legislature  of  the  original  measure  had  been  heralded  abroad  but 
its  text  was  never  widely  distributed — the  failure  to  do  so  being  the  main 
symptom  of  the  paralysis  mentioned  above.  Having  been  an  exhibit  in 
the  Governor's  message,  it  had  not  been  published  even  in  the  reports  of 
that  document.  For  the  convenience  of  interested  readers  the  following 
synopsis  is  here  recorded: 

House  Joint  Resolution  No.  28  and  S.  J.  R.  No.  17  were  identical.  The  entire 
Article  VII,  Title  Public  Education,  of  the  Constitution  was  rewritten.  The  first 
eight  sections  provided  numerous  unquestionable  improvements  in  the  public  school 
system,  universally  recognized  as  greatly  needed. 

Sec.  9.  Repeats,  and  adds  that  the  "Legislature  shall  provide  for  the  support  and 
development  of  the  University  by  tax  levy,  appropriation,  and  bonds,  or  by  any  or 
all  of  them,  as  may  be  necessary  for  a  university  of  the  first  class 

Sec.  10.  Defines  the  university  permanent  fund  and  directs  its  investment;  auth- 
orizes regents  to  issue  bonds  secured  by  the  fund  with  concurrence  of  the  Governor 
and  to  be  sold  by  him,  to  acquire  lands  and  buildings  if  necessary  so  to  do. 

Sec.  11.  Repeats  provisions  setting  apart  lands  and  funds  for  the  University,  and 
transfers  to  the  University  the  lands  set  aside  for  eleemosynary  asylums. 

Sec.  12.  A.  and  M.  Col.  established  independently  in  exactly  the  same  way  as 
University,  repeating  Sees.  9  and  10  for  A.  and  M.  Prairie  View  Col.  established  as 
branch  of  A.  &  M. 

Sec.  13.  400,000  acres  of  University  land  of  average  value  transferred  to  A.  and 
M.,  or,  as  A.  and  M.  may  elect,  securities  owned  by  University  of  equivalent  value. 
[Cf.  Sec.  11.  for  compensation  to  University.) 

Sec.  14.     Regulations  for  selling  University  and  A.  and  M.  lands. 

Sec.  15.  Prairie  View  Col.  shall  be  provided  for  by  governing  board  and  legislature 
in  any  or  all  of  ways  permitted  for  other  institutions,  as  may  be  necessary. 

Sec.  16.  Provides  for  support  and  development  of  Col.  Indust.  Arts  for  Women 
by  any  or  all  of  ways  permitted  for  University  and  A.  and  M. 

Sec.  17.     Same  for  the  State  Normal  Schools. 

Sec.  18.  The  Legislature  shall  levy  a  tax  not  to  exceed  ten  cents  on  $100  to  be 
divided:  44%  of  it  to  University;  29%  to  A.  and  M.  College;  18  3-4 %  to  the  Normal 
Schools;  5  3-4%  to  College  Indust.  Arts;  2  1-2%  to  Prairie  View  Col.  \Cf.  page  38.] 


INDEX 


Accounts,  139-142;  150-154;  157;  161. 

"Adams  Act,"  44. 

Administration,  1-2;  38;  74-;  80;  85; 
87;  99-105;  138;  174;  196-;  215; 
225;  230;  240-242;  258;  260; 
315;  335;  352;  407- ;  distin- 
guished from  organization,  1-2; 
240-242.. 

Administration  of  Curriculum,  see 
Curriculum. 

Admission  to  Courses,  333;  356;  423. 
See  Entrance. 

Advertising,  182-195;  225;  244-245; 
431;  437. 

Agassiz,  Jean  L.  R.,  166. 

A.  &  M.  Colleges,  72-75;  231.  See 
also  Texas,  A.  &  M.  College  of, 
and  Experiment  Stations. 

Agriculture,  29;  43;  44;  54;  72-74; 
87;  445.  See  also  A.  &  M.  Col- 
leges and  Experiment  Stations. 

Alabama,  University  of,   313. 

Alderman,  Pres.  E.  A.,  198;  201;  210; 
298. 

Aley,  Pres.  R.  J.,  440. 

Alice  in  Wonderland,  338-341. 

Alumni,  185- ;  190;  351;  369;  461. 

Amherst  College,  352. 

Appointments.  See  Nominations  for; 
also  216- ;  220;  255. 

Appropriations,  46;  102- ;  105;  134; 
141;  142-144;  203. 

Aristotle,  413. 

Arnold,  Mathew,  272. 

Association  of  American  Universities, 
77-;  192;  391;  421. 

Association  of  State  Universities, 
National,  76-78;  192;  389-  391. 

Athletics — director  of  public,  233; 
gymnasium  director,  233,  447. 
320;  336;  362-;  446-450. 

Babcock,  Dr.  K.  C.,  6;  57;  59;  60. 


Bacon,  Francis,  93. 

Baker,  Pres.  J.  H.,  389. 

Bancroft,  George,  273. 

Beloit  College,  320. 

Benton,  Pres.  Guy  P.,  229. 

Bequests,  see  Gifts. 

Bergson,  Henry,  228. 

Berlin,  University  of,  298,  460.     See 

German   Universities. 
Bessey,  Dean  C.  E.,  95;  96;  470. 
Birdseye,  C.  E.,  451- ;  453-;   461. 
Birge,  Dean  E.  Av  64;   253. 
Board.     See   Governing  Board. 
Boeckh,  Philip  August,  271;  303. 
Bookkeeping,    139-142;    151-152. 
Boydoin  College,  320. 
Briggs,  Dean  L.  B.  R.,  318. 
Brown,  Dr.  F.  C.,  432;   434. 
Bryan,  Pres.  W.  L.,  30;  46;   389. 
Budget,   134;    142-144. 
Buildings,    37;    39;    67-;    110;    136; 

147;     148-150;     165;     171;     202; 

210;   452. 

Bullard,  Mr.  S.  A.,  97;   259. 
Burger,  G.  A.,  303. 
Business  Management,  103;   105.     Pt. 

II,  Chap.  Ill,  138-195;  230;  245; 

250;    251;    428. 
Butler,    Pres.    Nicholas    Murray,    86; 

222;    357;    391. 

California,  University  of,  66;  253. 

Cambridge,  University  of,  119;  444; 
445.  See  English  Universities. 

Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Teaching — bulletins  on 
medical  education,  10;  a  needed 
service  by,  77-;  391;  forms  for 
financial  reports,  152;  Bulletin 
on  "Academic  and  Industrial 
Efficiency,"  154-174;  Study  of 
College  Advertising,  183-195.  See 
also  Pritchett,  Pres.  H.  S. 


518 


INDEX 


Carruth,  Vice-Pres.  W.  H.,  17;  252. 

Catalogs,  158;   179;   188;  245;  313. 

Catholic  University  of  America,  188. 

Cattell,  Prof.  J.  McKean,  117;  313. 

Central  Boards  of  Control,  5;  inex- 
pediency of,  11-23;  32;  76. 

Chairman  of  Department.  See  De- 
partments; also,  205;  219;  222; 
246;  249-;  425. 

Chairman  of  Governing  Board,  97-; 
240. 

Chairman  of  Faculty,  225-.    See  Dean. 

Chandler,  Prof.  E.  F.,  355. 

Chicago  City,  60;   62. 

Chicago,  University  of,  9;    184;   354. 

Christensen,  Mr.  J.  C.,  140;   146. 

Cicero,  265. 

Cincinnati,  University  of,  66. 

Co-education,  492;   496-511. 

College,  see  Nomenclature,  76. 

College  de  France.  See  French  uni- 
versities. 

Colleges, — number  and  sorts  of,  59; 
61-;  74;  184- ;  192-.  See  Co- 
operation. 

Columbia  University,   109;    172;   320. 

Commission,  Royal,  on  University 
Education,  279-298. 

Committees, — of  governing  board,  115, 
170- ;  of  faculty,  133,  226,  244. 

Comptroller,  State,  139-140. 

Consolidation  of  diverse  institutions, 
5-9;  72-;  75-. 

Cooke,  Mr.  Morris  Llewellyne,  154-170. 

Coolidge,  Prof.  Archibald  Cary,  277. 

Cooper,  Mr.  C.  S.,  81. 

Co-operation,  18;  30;  33;  49;  by 
Federal  Government,  44,  54-;  be- 
tween universities  and  colleges, 
59-,  63,  74,  515;  between  univer- 
sities and  high  schools,  58-,  369-, 
374-;  between  universities  and 
theological  seminaries,  65- ;  by  in- 
dividual citizens,  67-70;  within 
departments,  102;  in  advertising, 
192;  in  research,  192;  431;  513; 
515. 


Cornell,  Ezra,  85;   86;   497. 

Cornell   University,    85-;    111;    118-; 

120-125;     232;    237;    329;    373; 

442;   457;   496. 
Correspondence     Courses,     87;      184; 

231;   445. 

"Cost  per  student,"  157-169;   178. 
Councils,  Faculty,  126-135;  141;  199; 

204;   217. 

Course,  see  Nomenclature,  76. 
Courses  of   Study,   46;    72;    77;    96; 

333;  344-;  349-;  356;  423;  431- ; 

435;  438.     Seel  also,  Curriculum, 

Administration      of ;      Curricula, 

Existing  College. 
Craighead,  Pres.  E.  B.,  78;  385. 
Creighton,  Prof.  J.  E.}  263;  265. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  384. 
Curricula,  Existing  College,  313-.    See 

Curriculum,  Administration  of. 
Curriculum,  see  Nomenclature,  76. 
Curriculum,    Administration    of,    Pt. 

II,  Chap.  VI;   see  Courses. 

Dante,  405. 

Davenport,  Director  Eugene,  99 ;  203 ; 

205. 
Dean,   119;    125;    127;    140-141;    146; 

174;    180;    182;    221;    229;    230; 

236;   251;   256;   334;   344;    357-; 

470.     The  Deanship,  238-243. 
Defectives,  Schools  for,  32. 
Deficits,   150. 
Degrees,  48;   60;   62;   154;   184;   189; 

190;    273-274;    275-;    283;    289-; 

312- ;  315;  317;  331-333;  341-344; 

390- ;  399;   404;  418- ;  420;   423; 

460. 
Democracy,  118;  171;  191;   194;  210; 

238;   399-;   403;   413;   441;   449; 

465. 

Department,  see  Nomenclature,  76. 
Departments,  47;   75;  99-;   103;   119; 

141;    143;    146;    155;    158- ;    161; 

173;    198;    202;    203;    219;    222; 

246;    324;    331;    423-.       Depart- 
ment Organization,  247-254;  425. 


INDEX 


519 


Director,    102;     119;     230-233;     238; 

246. 

Discipline,  275;  329;  345;  415. 
Dismissal, — of     member     of     faculty, 

216-222,    256-,    259;     of    student 

from  course  or  college,  333,  342, 

345-349,  495. 
Disorganization, — three      sources      of, 

briefly  contrasted,  2-3;  effects  of, 

72-;   129;   351. 

Division,  see  Nomenclature,  76. 
Dodgson,  Rev.  C.  L.,  338;   340-. 
Dormitories,  451-469. 
Draper,  Commissioner  A.   S.,   3;    30; 

90;    97;    214. 
Dropping, — of  member  of  faculty,  216- 

222,   255-,   259;   of  student  from 

course  or  from  college,  333-,  342-, 

345-349,  495. 
"Duplication,"  6-9;   19;  26;  71;  295; 

431;  513. 
Dyche,  Mr.  Wm.  A.,  151. 

Echols,  Prof.  W.  H.,  493. 
Education,  see  Ideals. 
Efficiency,  4;  73;  138;  mistaken  anal- 
ogies,  154-169;    suggestions,   170- 

177;   435-442. 
Elective    System,    270- ;     277;     318- ; 

320;   322-333;  355;   422. 
Elementary     schools,     357,     386-398; 

411. 
Eliot,    Pres.    Charles    W.,    97;     119; 

148;    151;    165;    179;    183;    235; 

236;    240;    242;    244;    256;    260; 

275;   323;  326;  330;  422. 
Emerson,   Mr.   Harrington,   174. 
English  Universities,  121;   215;   222; 

272;    279-298;   301-. 
Entrance     requirements,     182;      275- 

276;     315;     357;     369-373;     374- 

386;   389-;   391- ;   440. 
Evening  Post,  New  York,  109;  165. 
Examinations,  272;    275;    279;    289-; 

294;    378. 
Executive  ability,  1;   as  to  governing 

board,   92;    as   to   officer   of  gov- 
erning board,  94,  101. 


Expansion,  University  policies  of,  46- ; 

86-;    110;   278;   288;   435. 
Experiment     Stations,     Agricultural 

44-45;    102;    231;    247. 
Extension  Division,  444-446;  451. 

Faculties,  46;  72;  74;  88-;  95-;  99- 
105;  106;  234-;  410;  415;  418; 
424;  429-;  Status  of,  111-118; 
participation  in  government,  118- 
135;  practicable  solutions,  125- 
135;  "productive  time,"  162-169; 
clerical  work,  173,  242;  records, 
179-182,  244;  eliminating  from, 
213-222;  meetings,  226,  235-, 
296;  committees,  236,  244;  ten- 
ure, 235,  254-;  rank,  tenure,  sal- 
aries, 254-;  recruiting,  260.  See 
Curriculum,  Administration  of, 
etc. 

Faguet,  Emile,  400;   412. 

Faraday,  442. 

Farm  and  Ranch,  43;  48. 

Federal  Government,  54-;   60. 

Fees,  161. 

Fellowship,    190. 

Feuerbach,  P.  J.  A.,  303. 

Fichte    303,  410;  417. 

Financial  basis,  4;  35-;  431- ;  435-. 
Reports  and  Audits,  150-154;  159. 

Fischer,  Kuno,  460. 

Flexner,  Mr.  Abraham,  10;   78. 

Florida,  13. 

Forbes,  Prof.  S.  A.,  106. 

Forestry,  161. 

Foster,  Pres.  W.  T.,  257;  276;  312; 
320;  353;  358. 

"Foster  Bill,"  54. 

Fraternities,  451-469. 

Freedom  of  Learning,  270-.  See  Elec- 
tive System,  and  Students. 

Freedom  of  Teaching,  220;  262-274; 
292;  442. 

French  Universities,  89;  222;  228; 
271;  272;  301-. 

Freshmen,  63;  328;  334;  337;  346-; 
416;  423;  438.  See  Students. 

Friendship,  265;   311;   460. 


520 


INDEX 


Funds.     See  Permanent  Funds. 

Galileo,  82. 

Gauss,  Johann  Karl  Friedrich,  303. 

Gellert,  Christian  F.,  303. 

General  Education  Board,  391. 

Georgia,  14. 

German  universities,  74;  88;  121; 
213- ;  215;  222;  266-;  272-273; 
280;  300- ;  333;  407- ;  460. 

Gifts,   67;    149-150;    151;    436. 

Gildersleeve,  Basil  L.,   166. 

Gilman,  Pres.  Daniel  Coit.  110. 

Gneist,  Heinrich  Kudolf,  271. 

Goethe,  417. 

Governing  Board,  2;  170;  200;  237; 
240;  351;  352;  513;  ex  off.  mem- 
bers, 20,  25;  "representative" 
members,  21 ;  term  of  office,  21, 
23,  25.  Pt.  II,  Chap.  II,  85-137. 
See  also  Business  Management. 

Grading,  357-368-;  467. 

Graduate  departments  and  divisions, 
8;  47-;  88-;  190;  192;  238;  270- ; 
283-287;  299;  301- ;  329;  421- 
444.  See  Research. 

Grandgent,  Prof.  Charles  H.,  399; 
404- ;  447. 

Gray,  Pres.  Edward  McQueen,  378. 

Grounds  and  Buildings,  148-150. 

Group,  see  Nomenclature,  76. 

Group  System,  325-. 

Hadley,  Pres.  Arthur  Twining,  477. 
Haldane,   Eichard   Burden,  of  Cloan, 

298. 

Hall,  Pres.  G.  Stanley, .  267,  506,  508. 
Haller,  A.  von,  303. 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  223;   414. 
Harnack,  Adolf,  306. 
Harvard    University,    53;     66;     151; 

165;    184;    185;    239;    250;   277; 

316;   318- ;   320- ;   330;   332;   353; 

354;   357;    369-;    422;    452;    515. 
"Hatch  Act,"  44. 

Head  of  Department.     See  Chairman. 
Hegel,  303. 
Heidelberg,  University  of,  460. 


Helmholz,  Hermann  von,  266;  284; 
303. 

Hermann,  G.,  303. 

Hertz,   Heinrich   Rudolf,   442. 

High  Schools,  29-32;  58;  88;  327; 
334;  343-;  369-;  374-386;  387- 
391- ;  396;  398;  411;  415;  439; 
440;  503-508. 

Hill,  Pres.  Albert  Ross,  248-;  252-; 
389-. 

Homes  of  students,  106;  451-469. 

Honor  System,  278;   477-496. 

Hopkins,  see  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity. 

Hour,  Student.     See  Student-Hour. 

Humbolt,  Alexander  and  William 
von,  302. 

Hutchins,  Pres.  H.  B.,  252;   254. 

Hutten,  Ulrich  von,  409. 

Huxley,  Thomas  H.,   110. 

Hygiene,  public,  46;   231. 

Idaho,   515. 

Ideals,  210;   234;  274-311;   399;   512. 

Illinois,  University  of,  9;  20;  57;  98; 

136;    154;    185. 
Industrial  Training,   398-. 
Institute  de  France,  89;  302. 
Instructors,  112;  127;  168;  219;  222; 

252;    255-;    261. 

Iowa,  University  of,  12;   14;  355. 
James,  Pres.  E.  J.,  57;  212. 

Jastrow,  Prof.  Joseph,  109;  111;  201; 

224;    227;   257. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  275;   414;   478. 
Johns    Hopkins    University,    9;    109; 

117;   166;  273;  419;   444. 
Johnston,  Pro.  J.  B.,  424. 
Jones,  Dr.  Richard,   136. 
Jordan,  Pres.  David  Starr,  230. 

Kane,  Pres.  Thos.  F.,  323;  445. 
Kansas,  University  of,  16-18;  67;  515. 
Kansas  City,  Mo.,  387. 
Kant,   303. 
"Keene  Bill,"  17. 
Kingsley,  Charles,  265. 


INDEX 


521 


Kirchoff,  G.  R.,  303. 

Laboratories,  46;  144- ;  161;  172; 
247;  251;  281;  288. 

Law  Schools,  186;  299;  305;  333; 
419. 

Law — distinction  between  law  and 
edicts,  41 1-. 

Lectures, — attendance  by  colleagues, 
218,  228,  350;  delivered  by  pres- 
ident, 227-228;  attendance  with- 
out "credit"  by  students,  228, 
344,  349-350,  404,  444;  evening, 
288;  as  method  of  teaching,  284. 

Legislatures,  3;  13-18;  30;  43;  48-; 
50-;  61;  67;  71;  85;  138;  142; 
262-;  352;  513;  515. 

Lehrfreiheit.  See  Freedom  of  Learning. 

Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University,  9; 
117;  183;  230. 

Lernfreiheit.  See  Freedom  of  Learn- 
ing. 

Libraries,  46;   145;  246. 

Liebig,  303,  442. 

Lile,  Prof.  Wm.  Minor,  479. 

Lister   Institute,  286. 

Loan  Fund,  Student,  437. 

London,  University  of,  279-298. 

Louisiana,   Tulane   University  of,   78. 

Lowell,  Pres.  A.  L.,  167. 

Luckey,  Prof.  G.  W.  A.,  29. 

Luther,  303. 

McGill  University,   192. 

McVey,  Pres.  F.  L.,  252. 

Madison,  James,  276. 

Manager,  Business,  144-148;  see  also 
Business  Management. 

Manual  Training,  400-. 

Marriage,  261;  502;  509-. 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy, 114;  515. 

Mauck,  Pres.  J.  W.,  107. 

Maurice,  Frederick  Denison,  409. 

Medical  Association,  American,  385. 

Medicine,  schools  of,  10;  41;  45-46; 
78;  161;  186;  231;  299;  305; 
333;  385;  418;  433. 


Melanchthon,  303. 

Mezes,  Pres.  S.  E.,  85. 

Miama  University,  27. 

Michigan,  University  of,  10;  20;   185; 

252. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  132. 
Mines,   schools  of,   8;    54-58. 
Minnesota,  University  of,   18. 
Mississipoi,    14. 
Missouri,    University    of,    250;    253; 

356;   357-:   420. 

Moltke,   Helmuth,   Count  von,   175. 
Montana,  University  of,   14. 
Montesquieu,  223;    412. 
Moulton,  Prof.  Richard  G.,  444. 
Miiller,  J.,  271. 

Munroe,  Mr.  James  P.,  112;    116. 
Munsterberg,  Hugo,  389. 
Museums,  56;  67-70;  246. 
Music,  401. 

National  Association  of  State  Uni- 
versities, 76-78;  192;  389-;  391. 

N.  E.  A.  Committee  on  Articulation 
of  High  Schools  and  College,  382. 

Newman,  John  Henry,  Cardinal,  414; 
512. 

New  York  State,  120;    154. 

New  Zealand,  University  of,  291. 

Niebuhr,  Barthold  G.,  303. 

Nietzsche,  Fredrich  Wilhelm,  306; 
417. 

Nomenclature  adopted  by  Nat.  Assn. 
St.  Univs.  (department,  course, 
college,  school,  group,  curriculum, 
division),  76. 

Nomination  for  appointments,  104; 
133;  199;  203;  204;  213-222; 
226;  255-259;  469. 

Normal  Schools,  24-;  correlation  with 
colleges,  26,  31;  in  Texas,  36,38. 

North  Dakota,  University  of,  354. 

Ohio,  small  colleges  in,  7;   61. 
Ohio   State  University,  27. 
Ohio  University,  27. 
Oklahoma,   14-15. 
Oregon,  University  of,   15;   66. 


522 


INDEX 


Organization.  Features  of,  for  which 
state  legislatures  are  responsible, 
Part  I.  Internal,  Part  II;  dis- 
tinguished from  administration, 
1-2;  240-242.  80;  85;  95;  99; 
106;  132;  136;  170-178;  179; 
196- ;  202;  205-206;  223;  237; 
247;  335;  351;  512.  See  Ideals. 

Oxford,  University  of,  119,  137.  See 
English  Universities. 

Partridge,  Capt.  Alden,  353. 

Pasteur,  442. 

Patmore,  Coventry,  380. 

Paulsen,  Prof.  Fdererick,  266-;  270- ; 

300;  407;  409;  415;  460. 
Peabody  Institute,  Baltimore,  444. 
Pennsylvania,  University  of,  66. 
Pensions,  262. 

Permanent  Funds,  125;  138;  151. 
Perry,  Prof.  E.  D.,  86. 
Philosophy,  228;   306;   329. 
Plato,  418. 
Post,  New  York  Evening,   109;    165- 

167. 

Pott,  Prof.  W.  S.  A.,  485. 
Preparation,   192- ;    341- ;   440. 
Prescribed  courses,  314-322;  327-;  333. 

See  also  Elective  System. 
President,  2;  89;  94;  96-;   104;   115; 

119;  121;  118-135;  140-141;  170; 

173- ;    176;    180;    182;    186.      Pt. 

II,  Chap.  IV,  196-233;  236;  237; 

239;   240;   244;   247;   251;   257-; 

352-353;    469. 

Press,  University,  287.  See  also  Pub- 
lications. 

Princeton  University,  170- ;  320;  460. 
Principles,     79-83;     85;     254;     263-; 

274-311;  418. 
Pritchett,  Pres.  H.  S.,  15;  60;  61;  64; 

78;    112;    151-;    154;    169;    180; 

215;   275. 

Privat-Docent,  112;  214;  273. 
Prizes  for  all,  341;   420;   440. 
Probationary  Appointments,  216;  218; 

220;   255-259;  261. 


Promotions,     133;     199;     253;     255-; 

258-. 
Publications,    University,    183;     244- 

245;  287. 
Publicity  Bureau,  182;  189;  205;  244. 

See  Advertising. 
Pufendorf,  S.  von,  303. 
Purchasing    Agent,     145;     428.       See 

also  Business  Management. 
Pure  food  and  drug  laws,  43. 

Quality,  82;  107- ;  163;  219;  370-. 
Credit  for,  353-357;  373;  420. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  287. 
Rank,  254-. 

Ranke,  Leopold  von,  271;   303. 
Reckitt,  Mr.  Ernest,  141;  154;  159. 
Recruiting  a  Faculty,  260- ;  442. 
Reed  College,  188;  355;  357. 
Reeves,  Mr.  Pember,  296. 
Regents,  see  Governing  Board. 
Registrar,  178-182;   230;  256. 
Reports.     Financial  and  audits,   150- 

154.     Statistical,  158-.     See  also 

Catalogs. 
Research,   49;    54;    73-74;    106;    116; 

152- ;    190;     192;    238;    283-287; 

299;  301- ;  305;  309;  421- ;  430- ; 

440-. 

Resignations,  213. 
Rice  Institute,  9. 
Rivalry  under  precarious  support,  5-; 

8;  internal  effects  of,  71-;  75-76; 

111;  431;   513. 
Roberts,  Gov.  0.  M.,  51-52. 
Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  89. 
Riickert,  Friedrich,  303. 
Ruskin,  John,  94;  307. 

Sage,  Henry  Williams,  496. 

Salaries,  88-;  112;  152- ;  157- ;  164; 
213;  225;  253;  rank,  tenure,  sal- 
aries, 254-160. 

Savigny,  Friedrich  Karl  von,  271; 
303. 

Savigny,  L.  von^  272. 

Sayers,  Ex-Gox.  Joseph  D.,  400. 


INDEX 


523 


Schelling,  F.  W.  J.  von,  303. 
Schiller,   303. 

Schleiermacher,  F.  E.  D.,  271;  303. 
Scholarships  ,189;   190;  436. 
School.     See  Nomenclature,  76. 
Schurman,  Pres.  Jacob  G.,  Ill;  118-; 

120;    125;    196;    198;    232;    237; 

239;    263;    457. 
Science,  67;   117;   165;   263. 
Secondary     Schools,    88;     281;     300; 

305;    327;    334;    343;   369-;    374- 

386;    387;    391;   396;    398;    408; 

415;    439;    440. 
Secretary    of    governing   board,    146-. 

Secretaries     of     faculties,     236; 

243-;    256. 

Slosson,  Mr.  E.  E.,  194,  460,  477,  497. 
Smith,  Prof.  Wm.  Benj.,  199. 
Society  of  Educational  Research,  392. 
Solomon,   137. 
Sorbonne,   89. 
Sororities,  465-466. 
South  Dakota,  15. 
Stanford.     See  Leland  Stanford,  Jr., 

University. 

Starch,  Prof.  Daniel,  366. 
Statistics,    4;     80-;     169;     391;     392. 

See  Reports. 

Stevenson,   Robert  Louis,   448. 
Strassburg,  University  of,  52. 
Strong,    Chancellor    Frank,    16;    21; 

132. 

Stubbs,  Governor  W.  R.,  17. 
Student-Hour,   156- ;    178. 
Students,   84;    158- ;    169;    179;    186; 

192;   202;    214;   218;   227;    228-; 

234;    270- ;   280- ;    283-;   294-296; 

303- ;  324-;  328-;  337-;  342;  344- 

352;   371;  420- ;  431;  438-;  448-. 

Part  II,   Chap.  VII. 
Students'  Aid  Bureau,  245-;  437. 
Sumner,  Prof.  W.  G.,  501. 
Support,  53.     See  Rivalry,  Financial 

Basis,  Appropriations,  Tax. 
Swift,  Jonathan,  338. 

Tacitus,  386. 

Taft,  Ex-Pres.  W.  H.,  411. 


Tarbell,  Miss  Ida  M.,  107. 

Tax,    State,    fixed    apportionment    to 

separate    institutions,    8;    71-73; 

necessary  tax  for  Texas  and  its 

apportionment,   34-50. 
Taylor,  Mr.  F.  W.,  175. 
Technology,  42;  73;  279;  281- ;  287-; 

294-;   333. 

Tenure,     254-;     262.       See    Appoint- 
ments. 
Texas,  A.  &  M.  College  of,  5 ;  25 ;  33 ; 

42-;  515.     See  A.  &  M.  Colleges; 

Agriculture. 
Texas,  University  of,  8;  23;  33-;  45; 

47-48;  50-;  53;  65;  66;  71;  148; 

239;   316;   388;   515. 
Theological  Seminaries,  65-;  161;  305. 
Thilly,  Prof.  Frank,  266;  300;  409. 
Thorndike,  Prof.  E.  L.,  320. 
Thornton,   Prof.    Wm.   M.,    477,    478, 

488. 

Thomasius,  Christian,  303. 
Ticknor,  Prof.  George,  353. 
Toronto,  University  of,  172. 
Trade  Schools,  402-. 
Treitschke,   303. 
Tulane  University  of  Louisiana,  78. 

Udden,  Dr.  J.  A.,  67. 

Uhland,  Johann  Ludwig,  303. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  6;  57;  59. 

Universities.  Policies  of  expansion, 
46-;  110;  278;  288.  Private 
services,  57.  Co-operation  with 
colleges,  58-;  62-;  74.  Relations 
with  high  schools,  58;  88;  347-; 
369-;  374-386;  438-;  440.  Rela- 
tions with  theological  seminaries, 
65-.  Number  of  students,  64; 
73;  75-;  345;  385;  404;  437; 
441;  447.  All-incluping  concep- 
tion, 86;  435;  445-446;  451.  Two 
theories  of  management,  99-105. 
Essential  work,  106;  275;  see 
Ideals.  American,  85;  94;  116; 
118-;  120-;  125-;  214;  218;  223; 
258;  263;  266;  299;  301; 
374-;  408;  432.  European,  73  j 


524 


INDEX 


74;  112;  121;  184;  218;  222; 
333.  German,  74;  88;  121;  214; 
215;  222-226;  272;  300;  407-. 
English,  121;  215;  222;  272; 
279-;  301;  460.  French,  89;  222; 
271;  272;  301.  University  edu- 
cation, 279-298.  Ideals,  210; 
234;  274-310.  See  Financial 
Basis,  Business  Management,  Sup- 
port, Organization,  Administra- 
tion, Faculty,  Curriculum,  Grad- 
uate Division,  etc. 
University  Education,  Report  of 
Royall  Commission  on,  279-298. 

Valparaiso  University,  185. 

Van  Hise,  Pres.  C.   R.,  7;    11-;    15; 

17-19;    23;    66;    445;    457. 
Venable,  Pres.  F.  P.,  252. 
Verulam,  Lord,  93. 
Vilas,  William  F.,  12. 
Virginia,   19. 
Virginia,  University  of,  53;  188;  210; 

275-;   277-;   317;  478-. 
Visitor  of  Schools,  385. 
Vocational  courses,  403-. 

Wabash  College,   320;    449. 


Waltz,  Georg,  271;  303. 

Washington,  George,  414. 

Washington  City,  60;  62. 

Weierstrass,  303. 

Wellesley  College,  320. 

Wesleyan  University,  320. 

West  Virginia,  15. 

Wheeler,  Pres.  Benj.  Ide,  253. 

White,  Pres.  Andrew  D.,  410;  497. 

White,  Mr.  Peter,  20. 

William  and  Mary,  College  of,  276. 

Williams  College,  320. 

Wilson,  Pres.  Wbodrow,  452. 

Wisconsin,  University  of,  12;  28;  61; 

64;     67;     145;     182;     185;     250; 

253;  366;  475;  515. 
Wolf,  F  .A.,  271;   303. 
Wolff,  Christian,  303. 
Wonderland,  Alice  in,  338-341. 
Woodward,  Pres.  R.  S.,  81. 
Women,    State    College   for    (Texas), 

5;   39-41. 
Wyoming,  University  of,  313. 

Yale  University,  117;  160;  166;  319; 
353;   477. 


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